Planning commercial sea urchins production

Loch Duart Ltd is hoping to install nine sets of lantern nets on which the urchins are grown according to the newspaper. The company, which also plans to produce seaweed, has been awarded £98,500 from HIE Caithness and Sutherland towards capital and management costs for the combined project. Urchin and seaweed co-ordinator Georgina Robinson told the Press and Journal that the species lives comfortably alongside the salmon. The urchins eat leftover fish food and clean algae off the cages, while the seaweed feed on nutrients in the water. Around 30,000 urchins is currently being grown and will be ready to go to customers next winter, but the company wants to start growing them on a larger scale from next year. Managing director Nick Joy told the Press and Journal that they were moving into urchin and seaweed production for environmental reasons, rather than financial gain: "It is inevitable that all forms of agriculture will move away from monoculture and towards polyculture.”