Building one of the world’s largest smolt plants - again!

PLANS for two organic salmon farms on Skye were rejected by councillors after a campaign against the development by locals, the Press and Journal reported. Organic Sea Harvest, which already has approval for two sites – at Invertote and Clunacnoc, had submitted proposals to Highland Council for a farm of 12 x 400ft cages just off the eastern coast of the Trotternich pensinsula at Flodigarry in north-east Skye. The plan was to rotate production cycles, leaving sites fallow for a year, but the Flodigarry...

THE economic and social impact of the algae outbreak which hit two important Norwegian salmon farming areas last May was more severe than first thought, a report has suggested. It also says some aspects in tackling the problem were not handled well. The independent aquaculture and fisheries data provider Kontali, which has closely mapped and analysed the effects, says the industry is now faced with ‘substantial economic consequences’ from the attack, which lasted for more than two weeks in the...

Mowi Scotland plans to achieve ASC certification at all its freshwater loch sites this year, along with additional seawater sites, the company announced today. Until the ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) revised its salmon standard last year, many farms in Scotland could not comply because the ASC did not allow the production of salmon smolts in freshwater lochs. Mowi said in the January issue of its newsletter, The Scoop: ‘Although there are alternative environments for the smolt production at this...

The season’s first rainbow trout eggs from the AquaGen strain was delivered to Hofseth Aqua in Tafjord, Norway on November 19th, 2019, two months earlier than normal. With access to these early eggs, the smolt can be put to sea in spring, benefit from good growth through the summer and be harvested the following spring after 10 months in the sea. Rainbow trout production in the sea is mainly seasonal. The bottleneck has been availability of smolt to ensure good utilisation of the plant capacity and be able...

GRIEG Seafood yesterday reported that survival rates are increasing at its Shetland operation where it has been experiencing ongoing biological problems.The announcement was made as the world’s seventh largest fish farmer presented its 2019 third quarter results, which delivered solid earnings on the back of a strong performance from Norway.In August, Grieg suggested it may sell its operations on Skye. It has not added to that speculation this time except to say that its Skye strategic evaluation was...