Scottish Sea Farms' Orkney production manager (now Northern Isles regional manager) Richard Darbyshire, left, being presented with the 2019 People's Choice award by Campbell Morrison of Europharma (now STIM), which sponsored the category. Photo: FFE.

Time running out to pick People’s Choice winner in Aquaculture Awards

Organisers of this year’s Aquaculture Awards have issued a reminder that those wishing to vote for the People’s Choice Award must do so by midday on Monday.

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The winners of all the awards will be announced in a virtual awards ceremony broadcast on the Awards Twitter page from 4pm (UK time) next Wednesday, September 16, in which the sponsors of each award category will announce that category’s winner.

The awards event should have been held at Aquaculture UK in Aviemore in May, but the trade show was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shortlists

The 43 nominees for the People’s Choice Award – both individuals and companies – made it on to the list by successfully reaching the shortlists of the 12 other categories. The shortlists were chosen by an experienced judging panel.

Nominees include Noelia Rodriguez, hatchery manager for Scottish Sea Farms at Barcaldine near Oban, Ross Fennel, site assistant with the Scottish Salmon Company at Gigha, Arran, who are both short-listed in the fish farmer of the year category, and Alastair Barge, owner/operator of Otter Ferry Seafish, who farms halibut for the table, and both wrasse and lumpfish for the salmon industry and has been shortlisted in the outstanding contribution to the industry category.

Martin Jaffa (unsung hero category), author of the ReaLAKSation blog and a staunch defender of the salmon industry, is also nominated.

Tilapia RAS

There are several nominees from overseas, including Lovemore Ndovie (fish farmer of the year category), who runs Kayalami Aquaculture, the first recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) tilapia production facility in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The full list, including biographies, along with an option to vote, can be found here.

Incredible talent

“These prestigious awards will once again highlight the incredible range of talent and cutting-edge advances in technology involved in the global aquaculture sector,” said event director Cheri Arvonio.

“We are once again incredibly grateful to the judging panel, featuring Alex Adrian, aquaculture operations manager of Crown Estate Scotland; Martin Gill, head of aquaculture and fisheries at Lloyds Register; Nicki Holmyard, Director of Offshore Shellfish Ltd; Professor Dave Little, head of research at Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture; Ingrid Olesen, senior scientist at Nofima; and The Fish Site’s Rob Fletcher.

“Once again, the quality of this year’s awards entries has been outstanding.”