STS still a work in progress
Steve Bracken, Business Support Manager for Marine Harvest, who chaired the Ministerial Containment Working Group that came up with the standard, told Fish Farming Expert: “Although now finished we see the STS as a living document so that as new ideas come forward and new equipment and processes are developed we want the Standard to incorporate these in future revisions. The STS will ensure that the right equipment is in the right location to minimise the risk of any future escapes.”
The standard is meant to determine technical requirements for fish farm equipment as well as help ensure that the industry is utilising a suitably trained workforce to operate it in a bid to minimise escapes – a goal that is of huge importance to the whole aquaculture industry – but it is seen by some as more of a boost to equipment providers than by finfish producers themselves.
As Dr Kenny Black from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) – who was also on the steering committee – explains: “As the standard is implemented we will hopefully see a reduction in incidents that cause fish to escape – this will benefit the whole industry, which suffers reputational as well as economic loss when fish escape, and also benefit the environment, as escaped fish can interact negatively with wild fish.
“In some cases the industry will have to invest in new kit to become compliant and this will have some cost to them and benefit to the kit manufacturers”.
The Standard is a key strand of the Ministerial Group on Sustainable Aquaculture’s Containment Working Group and will be implemented across all Scottish salmon farms by 2020.
