Positives taken from failed halibut farm

John Goodlad, one of the directors of the Shetland Halibut Company (SHC), which is being wound up with a loss of around £200,000 to the Shetland Development Trust, told the Aberdeen Press and Journal that he had been farming halibut for the past 10 years and had “cracked” many of the husbandry problems associated with introducing a new species to aquaculture.

But it was only the females that grew to a marketable 4-5kg (8.8-11lb), while the male fish ate the same amount of feed but only grew to half the size.

He told the newspaper: “We did our cash-flow projections on a 50:50 (male-female) ratio as one would do, but the fact is that the ratio was nearer 30 per cent female and 70 per cent male fish.”

The final blow came last year when SHC lost 3,700 female fish in a storm.

The company had been successful in developing niche markets in the restaurant trade paying premium prices of £8 per kg (£3.63 a lb), The Press and Journal wrote.

He added that  when hatcheries become able to make available predominately female juveniles, it will be a fantastic business for a place like Shetland.