More sea lice problems in Shetland

Four jobs are under threat at Norwegian-owned Mainstream Scotland's operation in Aith Voe, off Shetland's West Coast, after the firm said they had emptied their sites of fish and were now looking for a buyer, local news source Shetland Marine News reports.

The news follows the discovery in January of two cases of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) on salmon farms off Shetland's West Coast, which led the government to set up a control zone in which fish movements were banned.

Mainstream managing director William Young told the news source they had been badly hit by sea lice at Aith Voe, the same problem which has devastated other fish farms in the area.Hundreds of thousands of fish off the West Coast have been killed by sea lice during the past six months, though Mr Young said their main problem was restricted growth.He told Shetland Marine News that they would spend the next few weeks looking for a buyer for the four sites.

Grieg Seafoods, who own Shetland’s biggest salmon producer Hjaltland Seafarms, reported to the Norwegian stock exchange this year that they had lost 2,500 tonnes of salmon, around 600,000 fish, through sea lice in the last three months of 2008, predominantly in Shetland.