NEWS
Local apprentice leads new wave of young blood into burgeoning Scottish aquaculture sector
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imon MacLellan, the talented 24-year-old aquaculture trainee working for Marine Harvest in Lochaber and winner of the Lantra Scotland Aquaculture Learner of the Year Award 2013, is leading a new wave of Modern Apprentices into an expanding fisheries and aquaculture management sector. With new Government targets for marine production set to increase to 210,000 tonnes and shellfish to 13,000 tonnes by 2020, there are significant and growing career oppor tunities for school leavers and college graduates looking for a challenging and highly skilled occupation. The aquaculture industry is currently worth at least UK£800m per year across the UK, with over 560 aquaculture businesses employing nearly 6000 people. According to Lantra Scotland, the sector skills council for the land-based, environmental and aquaculture industries, about 50 percent of these are based in Scotland, with Scottish businesses employing about a third of the entire UK workforce. The introduction of new talent into the sector has been spearheaded by the success of the Scottish Government’s Modern Apprenticeship programme, which provides a very successful route into work for young people and access to new talent for employers. The programme offers a unique mix of college-based learning and practical on-the-job training which gives young people all the theoretical and practical skill sets that they need to succeed in their chosen careers. Aquaculture trainee Simon MacLellan is cutting his teeth at the sharp end of fisheries management, working with one of Scotland’s leading producer s, Marine Harvest. He is employed in the salmon hatcher y side of the business, whilst undertaking the theoretical part of his Modern Apprenticeship Level 3 at Inverness College. Simon explains: “I chose aquaculture because I can see this is
an industry that is only going to grow. Thankfully, as a society we have come to realise that commercial fishing is unsustainable, and with only 2 percent of the world’s oceans farmed, this represents a big opportunity for us all. It is very satisfying to be part of an industry that is geared towards sustainable fish production and I believe being part of the Modern Apprenticeship programme has given me the ideal star t to my career.” Lynn MacFar lane , Tr aining and Human Resources Officer, Marine Harvest, comments: “As a company we are keen to support our staff with their learning, and we have found that doing the SVQ (Scottish Vocational Qualification) alongside working on the farm is an effective combination for gaining knowledge and learning skills. Simon’s success as the Aquaculture Learner of the Year 2013 is a great inspiration for all our SVQ students. We have another employee, Jake Handley, who won Student of the Year for SVQ Aquaculture at Inverness College UHI earlier this year. So we are extremely pleased with how well staff are doing.” Kevin Patrick, Interim Director of Lantra Scotland adds: “The aquaculture sector in Scotland has grown steadily over the last few years, and we have seen a rise in demand for skilled personnel. The Aquaculture Moder n Apprenticeship programme is a very effective route into work for young people and provides employers with access to new talent. The framework is unique in that it provides a mix of college-based learning with practical, on-thejob training. This provides all the necessary theoretical and practical skill sets that young people need to succeed in their chosen careers. We’re also grateful to Marine Har vest for helping sponsor our land-based and aquaculture learner of the year awards, and to our main sponsor, the Scottish Salmon Company.”
Towards eggy fish oils Ioannis Zabetakis, assistant professor of food chemistry, university of Athens, Greece
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iven the increasing need for fish oil in the aquafeed industry, scientists and formulators around the globe are in a constant quest for alternative sources of fish lipids. Wild fish stocks are decreasing fast and sardine oil may soon be too dear. Therefore many believe that krill oil is the next big thing. But is it? Because krill oil delivers omega-3 fatty acids in phospholipid form, krill experts maintain that krill oil is a more effective, betterabsorbed delivery system for omega-3 fatty acids than fish oils, which contain these fatty acids mostly in a triglyceride form. But Nordic Naturals just released ‘Omega-3 Phospholipids’, a fish oil product combining standard fish oil with phospholipid-bound omega-3 fatty acids from herring roe (fish eggs). The result is, according to the company, the highest omega-3 DHA and EPA content (thanks to the fish oil) as well as the highest phospholipid content and a broader range of phospholipids compared to krill oil. (It is especially high in phospholipid-bound DHA.) The product features 520mg of EPA and DHA, 143mg of which are phospholipid-bound. Company CEO and founder Joar Opheim calls these levels “more meaningful amounts of EPA and DHA” that meet the minimum 500-mg EPA/DHA dose per serving that experts recommend. Nordic Naturals is marketing Omega-3 Phospholipids as “the potent alternative to krill,” contending that it offers more than twice the level of omega-3s compared to all leading krill products on the market. “All leading krill oil products provide significantly less than 500mg EPA+DHA per day,” says Scott Minton PhD, Nordic Naturals’ scientific advisor. “Because Omega-3 Phospholipids provides more omega-3 EPA and DHA in both triglyceride and phospholipid-bound forms compared to any krill product, the opportunities for absorption are increased.” The choice of herring roe (from wild, sustainable Norwegian herring) was due to roe’s high content of phospholipid-bound EPA and DHA, the company says. “Gram for gram, krill oil and herring roe oil have a similar amount of phospholipid content,” says Minton. “However, the herring roe oil has a broader spectrum of phospholipids and a higher amount of phospholipid-bound omega-3 DHA.” Not all fish eggs are high-phospholipid candidates, though. “In general, the percentage of phospholipids present in a fish egg will vary with many factors, including the fish species, the developmental stage of the egg, water temperature and lifehistory features of the adult fish,” Minton says. “Using special laboratory equipment, the amount of phospholipids in different fish roe can be measured.” Taking this story a step further, at the University in Athens we are carrying out research (e.g. http://www.researchgate. net/publication/235981254_asj1067_nasopoulou_et_al_egg_ paper ) on the cardioprotective properties of hen’s egg polar lipids. The future could be eggy indeed by valorising egg lipids into aquafeeds. izabet@chem.uoa.gr @yanzabet