Posts Tagged ‘Scotland’
School students find out about salmon opportunities
More than 650 pupils from Lochaber discovered a wide range of local jobs in the Scottish salmon sector, helping ensure the industry can develop the next generation of talent.
The careers event at Lochaber High School on Wednesday, October 2, allowed local secondary school pupils to meet aquaculture professionals, learn about farm-raised salmon, and explore career options.
Read More£1.6m secured for fish health research
The Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) has announced its support for three innovation projects aimed at enhancing finfish health and welfare in response to a changing climate and other emerging challenges.
The projects concerned will address three major biological threats to farmed fish: micro-jellyfish, harmful algal blooms (HABs) and proliferative kidney disease (PKD).
Read MoreMarine Fund Scotland announces latest grant decisions
A trial for a new water-borne feeding system for salmon farmer Cooke Scotland and a new service station for cleaning fish farming nets are among the projects supported in the latest round of funding from the Marine Fund Scotland.
In total, the fund is making grants with a total of £14m for marine industries and coastal and island communities in 2024/25.
Read MoreA brand new model
Mowi Scotland has been pioneering a new approach to sea lice modelling that suggests regulators may be over-cautious.
Read MoreBakkafrost announces higher Q3 harvests for Faroes and Scotland
Faroese fish farmer Bakkafrost today reported a significantly higher third quarter harvest, with its Scotland arm showing a marked improvement.
The Faroe Islands produced 21,600 tonnes, a rise of 4,800 tonnes on the same period 12 months ago.
The harvest in Bakkafrost Scotland, which is now recovering from various biological issues, totalled 5,400 tonnes against 4,100 tonnes in Q3 2023. All harvest volumes are provided in head-on gutted (HOG) equivalents.
Read More‘No cover up’, Holyrood committee is told
A hearing held as part of the Scottish Parliament’s inquiry into the salmon farming industry yesterday was dominated by arguments over an alleged “cover-up” ahead of the MSPs’ visit to a fish farm on 23 September.
The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee of the Scottish Parliament is following up on a previous report, in 2008, on the salmon industry. As part of the inquiry, members of the committee visited a Scottish Sea Farms site at Dunstaffnage, near Oban on Scotland’s west coast, on 23 September.
Later that week, campaigning group Animal Equality UK released video footage which, it said, showed dead fish being removed from the pen in the early morning, ahead of the MSPs’ visit. Animal Equality UK Executive Director Abigail Penny said the removal of dead fish – “morts” – indicated that the salmon industry wants to “hide the truth” about mortality in farms.
She argued: “We urge the committee to see the industry for what it truly is: deceptive and deadly.”
At yesterday’s committee hearing, MSPs quizzed representatives of the salmon industry about the issue.
Dr Ralph Bickerdike, Head of Fish Health at Scottish Sea Farms, stressed that the morts removal that had been filmed was a routine exercise carried out at pens regardless of whether any external visitors were expected.
Read MoreMowi’s first post smolts transferred from Loch Etive
Salmon producer Mowi Scotland has transferred the first of its post smolts from Loch Etive to the company’s farm off the isle of Muck, on Scotland’s west coast.
Mowi said the move was a “significant milestone”. The Loch Etive sites were acquired by Mowi as part of its purchase of the fish farming assets of Dawnfresh in 2023. They had previously been used to grow trout, but Mowi has repurposed them to grow post smolt salmon in conditions that, the company hopes, will make the transition from fresh to salt water more sustainable for the fish.
Read MoreSense and sentinels
I have always been sure that it was unnecessary for Scottish Ministers to appoint a regulator to manage sea lice. As the weeks go by, I am also increasingly convinced that the appointment of SEPA to this role was a major mistake.
Having watched their efforts from the outset, I firmly believe that SEPA have little understanding of sea lice and the interactions with wild fish. I suspect that SEPA have simply listened to a narrative promoted by Scottish Government scientists based on mathematical modelling and have adopted the narrative as their approach to regulation but critically, without any real understanding of what it means.
Read MoreMowi denies Blar Mhor was source of river spill
Salmon producer Mowi has denied that its Scottish processing plant was responsible for an apparent pollution incident in the River Lochy, near Fort William.
Read MoreDriving change
The move to net zero requires a rethink for the way marine vessels are powered but, as Sandy Neil reports, there are a number of alternatives to consider.
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