Marine Harvest top the poll at Scottish Marine Aquaculture Awards

Siri Elise Dybdal

Marine Harvest Scotland triumphed at the Marine Aquaculture Awards with a clutch of awards including the highest accolade of Best Aquaculture Company of the Year. The top award made it a hat trick for Scotland’s biggest salmon farming company who had earlier won the Community Initiative and Business Development Awards.

 Managing director Alan Sutherland congratulated his team on the result saying: “This is proving to be a terrific year for the whole team at Marine Harvest Scotland. Last week we welcomed the First Minister to open our new smolt hatchery at Lochailort – a facility described as the most advanced in the world. This week we are celebrating winning not just one, but a trio of prizes in these prestigious awards. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Other winners included the Scottish Sea Farms (SSF), which won the overall award for Innovation.  The award recognises SSF’s innovative safety and training practices. The company has developed a new purpose designed lifejacket for employees and also demonstrated extensive developments and investment in safety for staff working over water.

Alasdair MacDonald from The Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) was named Farm Manager of the Year. The 35 year old who lives in Loch Carron has worked for eleven years in the company’s freshwater department. The award recognises Alasdair’s work at the company’s Russel Burn and Tulloch Hatcheries in Wester Ross.

 The fish farming companies were presented with the awards at Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh 13 June 2013.