Scottish Government gives £1.8m towards semi-closed fish farm
Loch Ailort project earns biggest grant in annual Marine Fund Scotland distribution
The Scottish Government has granted more than £1.8 million to part-fund a pioneering semi-closed containment trout farm project at Ardnish, Loch Ailort.
The grant of £1,836,611 from the Marine Fund Scotland will help meet the near-£4.6m cost of the system being installed by Dawnfresh Farming, which is now owned by SeaQureFarming Ltd, a company founded by Stewart Graham, managing director and owner of Inverness-based aquaculture supplier Gael Force Group.
SeaQureFarming announced in April that it had bought Dawnfresh Farming from salmon farmer Mowi Scotland, which bought the company out of administration in early 2023 and now uses former Dawnfresh sites in Loch Etive and Loche Awe for post-smolt production.
The deal with Mowi secured 20 jobs and gave SeaQureFarming two trout hatcheries - at Kinnaird near Montrose, and Frandy, near Auchterarder - and two net pen trout farms: a Dawnfresh site at Loch Earn and Mowi’s Ardnish site in Loch Ailort, which had already swapped species from Atlantic salmon.
Innovation site
Speaking in April, Graham told Fish Farming Expert that SeaQureFarming’s intention is to make Ardnish an innovation site where it can install a single Gael Force SeaQureFarm unit – known as a SeaQureWell – to grow trout. He hopes the reduced environmental impact of the unit will enable SeaQureFarming to increase the farmed biomass on the site.
He expects the semi-closed pen will be installed next year, once the company has applied for and hopefully received any regulatory consents that may be required.
“We hope that Ardnish will be a site that will showcase semi-closed technology to all of the stakeholders in Scotland,” said Graham, who added that the company will seek to grow by adding its semi-closed pens to sites in partnership with other producers.
£14 million of grants
The grant to Dawnfresh Farming is one of 60 projects focusing on innovation and sustainable development that will receive grants ranging from £1,500 to £1.8 million from the Marine Fund Scotland’s £14m distribution for 2026.
Other aquaculture-related grants include:
- £136,549 towards the £273,000 cost of expanding halibut juvenile production at Otter Ferry Seafish, Tighnabruaich
- £567,672 towards the £3.8m cost of salmon farmer Cooke Scotland developing a full recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) at its Cairndow smolt unit, Loch Fyne
- £55,743 to meet half the cost of rainbow trout producer Kames Fish Farming’s upgrade to a broodstock holding facility
- £307,749 to meet the full cost of scientists at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University developing a rapid field test for shellfish toxins
- £36,540 to meet the full cost of the Scottish Association for Marine Science improving the benthic resuspension sib-model in NewDEPOMOD, a modelling system used to determine suitable sites for fish farms
- £120,246 to meet the full cost of Eco Cascade Community Interest Company’s project to investigate the cost-benefit of processing a prebiotic farmed kelp product for salmon
Seaweed guidance
There is also a £49,563 grant to the Seaweed Industry Association (Scotland) Ltd for a project on seaweed food safety standards for Scotland which will make industry-agreed testing guidance and species-specific specification sheets opnely available to all producers and processors.
Scottish Seaweed Industry Association chief executive Rhianna Rees said: “It’s brilliant to see Scottish seaweed businesses recognised in this round of Marine Fund Scotland awards. It shows how far the sector has come, and how much work has gone into the development of the seaweed industry.
“We are also thrilled to receive support from Marine Fund Scotland for our own project to develop clearer, evidence-based food safety standards for Scottish seaweed. As demand grows across the UK and internationally, it's essential that producers have practical, trusted, shared guidance from a reliable source.”
Crucial to the coast
Scottish Government Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “Scotland’s marine economy is crucial to the economic, social and cultural fabric of our rural, coastal and island communities.
“Since 2021 the Marine Fund Scotland has awarded more than £70m in grants to 390 projects, facilitating a total of £150m of investment and supporting jobs and communities right around our coastline and throughout our islands.
“I am pleased to announce these grant awards which will continue to support projects showcasing key innovation and development in our marine industries and coastal communities.”
