March 4, 2020

Scottish Sea Farms eyes first open ocean salmon farm

Scottish Sea Farms seeks new locations in which to expand its production capacity as it looks to test Scotland's first open ocean salmon farm.

The salmon grower is keen to explore the biological and technological considerations of farming in considerably deeper, more exposed waters–and, in doing so, measure the potential of such locations to help meet growing demand for Scottish farmed salmon in a sustainable way.

With aquaculture regularly cited by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation as having a crucial role to play in achieving a world without hunger and malnutrition, the focus for every salmon farmer is how best to scale-up to deliver this.

Scottish Sea Farms' managing director Jim Gallagher said, "We put a great deal of time and care into identifying the best farming locations, both in terms of finding the optimum growing conditions and ensuring that the local marine environment can naturally sustain such activity.

"Over recent years, the scope of this work has widened to include the potential of more exposed locations; locations that could add to the volumes of salmon grown at our existing 42-strong farming estate."

While the company has identified several potentially suitable locations, they would need to speak to the relevant regulatory bodies and local authorities to seek their input before exploring these further.

As Gallagher explains, "For this ambition to be realised, however, we need an engaged, robust and forward-thinking regulatory framework that enables Scotland's salmon farmers to continue growing in a responsible manner and helps the sector reclaim its competitiveness on the world stage.

Providing the multi-million pound investment needed to develop the concept, if given the go-ahead, would be Scottish Sea Farms' Norwegian owner Norskott Havbruk, which is a 50/50 joint venture between Lerøy Seafood Group and SalMar.

The design is likely to be based on the world's first offshore fish farm–Ocean Farm 1, which is anchored in the Trøndelag region of central Norway–and was established by SalMar ASA in 2017. Costing GBP60 million and equipped with sector-leading Norwegian aquaculture and offshore technology, the 110m by 68m farm saw strong first crop results with high survival rates, high quality fish and consistently low lice levels, which meant that no delousing treatments were necessary.

If the concept is approved, it would be stocked at a level deemed viable by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Ocean Farm 1 is designed to hold up to 1.25 million fish but, whether something on this scale is granted permission in Scotland depends on the Scottish regulatory approach and assessment of the marine environment.