£14m for Scottish aquaculture and fishing sectors

Businesses in the salmon, shellfish and seaweed aquaculture sectors – as well as the fishing industry – are among the recipients of a further £14m of financial support from Marine Fund Scotland in its 2023/24 funding round, announced today. Marine Fund Scotland was set up by the Scottish Government following Brexit, to replace funding for…

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Northern lights

Orkney and Shetland are key to hopes for expansion for the Scottish salmon sector, reports Robert Outram Some of the most exciting developments in Scottish fish farming are taking place in the Northern Isles – Orkney and Shetland – where operators are investing in expansion, new sites and improved processing facilities. Back in December 2021,…

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Fish farm trainees shortlisted for Lantra awards

Trainees from three aquaculture companies have been short-listed for Lantra Scotland’s Awards for Land-based and Aquaculture Skills, known as the ALBAS. Scottish Sea Farms, Cooke Aquaculture and Bakkafrost will all be represented at the awards event, which will take place at the Crieff Hydro on Thursday 7 March 2024. Hamish MacLean (pictured, above) from Tobermory…

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Save our seaweed: scientists launch global initiative

A research project to find solutions to the biodiversity crisis in global seaweed stocks has been launched by the Oban-based Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) and partners in the UK, Asia and the United Nations University. The GlobalSeaweed SUPERSTAR project, funded by the UK’s Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC), will involve some…

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Fish health: your questions please

On Wednesday 24 January at 11.30am GMT, Fish Farmer magazine will be hosting a panel of experts to discuss fish health issues, in the first Aqua Agenda webinar. The discussion will cover the lessons that have been learned since 2022 for salmon farming in Scotland, what the outcomes looked like in 2023 and what the prospects…

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HPMAs: what’s next?

Proposals to bar all commercial activity from 10% of Scotland’s waters have been dropped. Where do we go from here? Sandy Neil finds out The decision, after all the debate, was hardly a surprise. Early in November, the Scottish Government’s Net Zero Secretary, Màiri McAllan MSP, knocked the plan for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs)…

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Mowi Scotland’s Q4 harvest unchanged at 10,500 tonnes

Mowi Scotland harvested 10,500 tonnes of salmon in the final quarter of 2023. The figure was unchanged from the equivalent quarter the year before but the operation produced a loss, a trading update from the company today shows. Globally, Mowi – the world’s largest salmon farmer – produced 129,000 tonnes during the period and a…

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Ace Aquatec hires new sales chief

Dundee-based aquaculture technology company Ace Aquatec has appointed Ben Perry as Head of Sales.   He has worked across freshwater and marine finfish production, animal health and genetics for over 15 years. Perry (pictured, with Ace Aquatec’s A-Biomass camera) comes to Ace Aquatec from Benchmark Holdings Ltd, where he held the role of Sales and…

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Researching complex gill disease in Atlantic salmon

Moredun is helping to find ways to improve salmon gill health Moredun Scientific’s scientists are developing experimental models of gill diseases in Atlantic salmon (pictured). The gills of Atlantic salmon play a key role in physiological processes. Their structure enables efficient transfer between blood and the water environment, but the gills may be exposed to…

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Scottish Government sets out blueprint for marine science

The Scottish Government has published its Marine Science and Innovation Strategy highlighting the crucial role of science and innovation in realising the full potential of the marine environment. The Strategy – part of the Blue Economy Vision to 2045 – is intended as a blueprint for the Scottish Government to utilise the best available science,…

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