Aquaculture sector pays tribute to brightest and best
A celebration of talent, achievement, and innovation in Scotland and further afield will take place today when the annual Aquaculture Awards are handed out at a dinner at the Macdonald Drumossie Hotel, Inverness.
Thirteen accolades will be awarded at the event, which will take place after an aquaculture conference being held at the same venue today.
Award categories include Rising Star, which will be awarded to one of three candidates on the shortlist - Alison Brough, a vet working for Scottish Sea Farms; Stephen Maciver, an assistant farm manager for Mowi Scotland; and Cameron Carmichael, a senior husbandry operator at Scottish steelhead producer Kames Fish Farming.
Innovation
There is overseas interest in the Innovation category, with four companies from abroad - Hailia Nordic (Finland - fish waste technology); Harbor AS (Norway - fish farm electric fence to block lice and jellyfish); Moleaer (US - nanobubble technology); and BiOceanOr (France - AI-powered water quality forecasts) among the five shortlisted entries. Bakkafrost Scotland and Observe Technologies are the fifth finalist.
The three people shortlisted in the Farmer of the Year category are Alastair Fraser of Scottish Sea Farms; Adam Johnson of Migdale Smolt; and Iain Jackson of Bakkafrost Scotland.
The Outstanding Contribution Award – voted for by the public – is a contest between three respected veterans: Alastair Barge, managing director of Otter Ferry Seafish; former Scottish government minister and aquaculture champion Fergus Ewing MSP; and Stuart Cannon, chairman and former managing director of Kames Fish Farming.
Conference
A conference before the event runs from 10.45am until 4pm and includes a panel session on how forward-thinking approaches can revolutionise UK aquaculture across finfish, shellfish, and seaweed cultivation.
Angus-based innovator Andrew Bett, founder and chief executive of Salar Pursuits Ltd, will explain how the company’s Smoltscreen and Bloomshield fully or partially enclosing nylon mesh enclosures are designed to operate, protecting salmon and sea trout from sea lice larvae, micro and macro jellyfish and toxic algal blooms.
The conference finishes with an update on the progress of the National Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Hub (NATIH) under construction at Stirling University’s Institute of Aquaculture.
The NATIH facilities will be completed and ready for use in mid-August, though they need to be thoroughly commissioned first over several months from September to January. Commissioning will use all 48 tanks within the four RAS zones and environmental change tanks, and all three-temperature controlled flow-through challenge facilities, at different environmental conditions.
