Fish Farmer Magazine January 2016

Fish Farmer VOLUME 39

JANUARY 2016

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Serving worldwide aquaculture since 1977

WRASSE REVIEW

WRASSE RESEARCH

LEADING FEEDS

Farmers and scientists discuss progress reports

Stirling team watch how cleaner fish behave

New Year, new diets - from capelin to copepods

Jan Cover.indd 4

NUMBER 01

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Contents 4-13 News

What’s happening in aquaculture in the UK and around the world JENNY HJUL – EDITOR

Happy New Year!

A

very happy New Year from everyone at Fish Farmer. We have been looking at the calendar for the next twelve months and planning how much time we can afford to spend out of the office, with all the industry shows and conferences lined up for this year. Fortunately, two of the biggest ones are close to home, starting with Aquaculture UK 2016, which returns to Aviemore from May 25-26. Later in the year, Aquaculture Europe 2016 is heading to Edinburgh, and hopefully many of you will be too.

In the meantime, we will keep up to date with all the most exciting developments in the sector, and where better to begin than with feed. In this issue, some of the researchers and companies spearheading innovation in fish diets present their findings and latest products. Just as we were putting this feature together, Marine Harvest announced its intention to build a feed factory in Scotland, a move the whole salmon industry will be watching with interest.

Another subject that concerns all salmon farmers is the challenge of controlling sea lice, so when the SSPO organised a conference last month to discuss cleaner fish initiatives, the industry response was enthusiastic. The SSPO’s Iain Berrill and Ardtoe’s Jim Treasurer were among those at the meeting and give their accounts of the progress being made in farming these new species.

Our industry pioneer for January is John Howard of Boris Nets, the Fleetwood based company that has played a major role in the expansion of salmon farming. John has seen many ups and downs during his decades in the business but says he always manages to bounce back. On that positive note, we look forward to the hectic year ahead.

Fish Farmer is now on Facebook and Twitter

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Meet the team

Contact us

Editorial Advisory Board: Steve Bracken, Hervé Migaud, Patrick Smith, Phil Thomas and Jim Treasurer Editor: Jenny Hjul Designer: Andrew Balahura Advertising Manager: William Dowds wdowds@fishupdate.com Advertising Executive: Dave Edler dedler@fishupdate.com Publisher: Alister Bennett

Tel: +44(0) 131 551 1000 Fax: +44(0) 131 551 7901 email: editor@fishfarmer-magazine.com

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38-39 Ynsect Scaling up

40-41 Acartia

Copepod breakthrough

Lesson from America

16-17 SSPO

Climate of change

18-20 Industry pioneer John Howard

21-25 Wrasse

42-52 Feed

Latest products

Conference notes

26-27 Research

Observing cleaner fish

28-29 Investment

Round of awards

30-31 Comment Martin Jaffa

54-55 Alands

Finnish business

56-57 Retail News French cooking

58-59 Processing News Saucy move

60-61 Archive

Price of feed

Head Office: Special Publications, Fettes Park, 496 Ferry Road, Edinburgh, EH5 2DL

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Contents – Editor’s Welcome

63-65 Aqua Source Directory 32-33 Feed Innovation

34-37 Nutriad

Find all you need for the industry

66 Opinion

By Nick Joy

Reducing costs

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12/01/2016 16:26:09

United Kingdom News

NEWS...

Net firm changes will drive future growth

Above: From left to right, Roger Dehany,Jim Traynor, Dave Hutchens and Finlay Oman

W & J KNOX, the Scottish fish farm net manufacturer, has announced management changes, with two key appointments to

the board from within the company’s existing team.

Managing director Jim Traynor, who has been with the Kil-

birnie based business since 1979 and successfully led a management buyout from Cosalt plc in 2004, becomes chairman

and is succeeded as managing director by Dave Hutchens, who joined the company in 2008.

Hutchens has

worked in the industry since 1980 and has been taking an increasing role in the management of the business since the sale of the company’s fibres division in 2013.

Roger Dehany becomes deputy chairman and is succeeded by his assistant for many years, Finlay Oman, who becomes commercial director.

Jim Borrows remains in his role as parttime director, sharing responsibility for financial matters with David Sloan, company secretary.

Hutchens said: ‘I am looking forward to this exciting new challenge and will continue to develop our excellent

relationship with the Scottish aquaculture sector.

‘I am taking the helm of a well stewarded, robust business and I am particularly pleased that I will be able to draw upon the experience and knowledge of Jim and Roger in their roles as chairman and deputy chairman.’

The management changes took effect from January 1, 2016.

‘I am taking the helm of a well stewarded, robust business’

Rural economies boosted by salmon industry

TECHNOLOGICAL advancements are transforming the salmon farming industry in Scotland, said a spokesman for the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation at a recent EU summit.

Currently, 2,257 people are employed directly by the industry. Skill levels are rising as the industry includes specialists in biology, fish health, modelling, engineering, IT and supply chain logistics, with many employees undertaking in-house training. With an additional 6,500 jobs in the supply chain, salmon farming is a crucial industry.

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All the latest industry news from the UK

New aquaculture research centre could be coming to the UK

A NEW lobster hatchery and aquaculture research centre may be set up in Amble, Northumberland, reported the Northumberland Gazette last month.

The hatchery would increase Amble’s sustainability aims and enhance its growing shellfish fishery, and the centre would also boost tourism in the town’s Harbour Village.

‘We have had two staged feasibility studies done for the lobster hatchery and we are writing up a business plan,’ said Julia Aston, a member of the Amble development trust.

‘We are waiting for the next round of funding from the European Fisheries Fund to open.

It is at an early stage, but it would be a boost to both local tourism and our fisheries.’

Experts say students on the right course A TOP academic course in sustainable aquaculture that works hand-in-hand with industry has been held up as a model for the future by two internationally renowned science communication consultants.

Dr Alex Bielak, associated fellow at the United Nations University, and Louise Shaxson, research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, have praised the new Joint Masters Degree at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) UHI for its ‘phenomenal networks’ and links between research and industry.

The consultants were at SAMS UHI last month to deliver an intensive communications masterclass as part of the two-year Aquaculture Environment and Society (ACES) Erasmus + programme, run through the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).

ACES, one of Europe’s top ranked academic programmes, attracts elite marine science graduates from across the globe to study at SAMS UHI, in Oban, as well as the universities of Nantes and Crete.

This allows them to study a range of specialisms, including finfish and shellfish aquaculture, and create contact networks across Europe. Fully funded scholarships are available to high academic achievers.

Following the well received three-day course

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managing director of SSMG, said: ‘We are delighted with our newlook website which we feel will appeal to a wider audience, especially consumers.

‘We have a great story

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in science communication, knowledge translation and brokering, Dr Bielak said: ‘These students are international but no matter where they come from they must be multi-lingual; they must learn to communicate with different audiences like industry, media, policy makers and the public, not just their peers.

‘We really challenged them but they were receptive to being taken out of their comfort zone. This is a very talented group of students who are incredibly privileged to have access to the Erasmus scholarship, one of the most generous scholarships I have come across.’

ACES is currently accepting applications for the 2016–2017 academic year.

TALENTED GROUP

Scottish Shellfish launches new website THE Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group’s website has undergone a redesign to broaden its appeal for users.

New features of the site (www.scottishshellfish.co.uk) include visually appealing descriptions of how Scottish mussels and oysters are cultivated, recipes and farmers’ blogs.

There is also an emphasis on the sustainable methods used in Scottish farmed shellfish production.

Stephen Cameron,

Above: Course leader Liz Cook, left, Louise Shaxson and Alex Bielak

to tell in the Scottish farmed shellfish sector and our new website will provide an important means for getting that information across to as wide an audience as possible.’

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12/01/2016 16:24:52

United Kingdom News

Seafish appoints new chief executive A LINCOLNSHIRE man has been appointed the new chief executive of Seafish, the fishing and seafood industry authority.

Marcus Coleman takes over from Dr Paul Williams, who stepped down in October and who had helped to bring the 2015 World Seafood Congress to Grimsby.

Coleman started at the Grimsby office of Seafish this month and joins the organisation from Compass Point Business Services

forward to driving Seafish forward and supporting its work to realise the ambition set out in the Seafish Corporate Plan.’

He holds a Master of International Business (MBA) from the Ecole Above: Marcus Coleman Nationale des Pont et where, as managing di- Chaussees in Paris, rector, he led a staff of is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Member 250 and a client base of the Institution of of more than 200,000 Lincolnshire residents. Civil Engineers, with While he is new to the an Honours Degree in Civil Engineering seafood industry, he brings strategic leader- from Imperial College, London. ship skills to the post.

He said: ‘I’m looking

SAIC to joint fund PhD feed projects THE Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) announced last month that it will be working with the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre to fund PhD projects focused on sustainable aquafeed.

The two innovation centres will provide two thirds of the funding, with the final third to be matched by an industry body as appropriate.

Projects that could be funded include: identification and production of high quality protein sources (such as specific amino acids); identification and production of novel sources of lipids (such as EPA and DHA); identification and production of

functional feed ingredients; and identification and production of novel sources of micro ingredients (including pigments).

Applications will be assessed by way of competition and must demonstrate industrial relevance and be of direct commercial benefit to the aquaculture industry in Scotland.

Above: Stirling, where SAIC is based

New managing director at Marine Harvest Scotland Marine Harvest Scotland announced in DecemAS a result of a restructuring of the management of Marine Harvest Scotland, ber that it is to build an £80 million feed factory in Alan Sutherland has left the business and been replaced as managing director Scotland, and Hadfield will be involved in finding a

by Ben Hadfield. coast of Scotland.

Hadfield, who took over on January 13, will have all responsibility for MHS Eiffel suitable Tower location on the westBurj Khalifa m factory is expected to have 828 m capacity of a total feed and farming operations, and will continue as COO for MHG’s Feed Division. 324 The Marit Solberg, chief operating officer farming, said: ‘I and Marine Harvest are around 170,000 tonnes of feed, with the potential grateful to Alan for his long 19 years of service and very dedicated contribution for further expansion.

See page 32 for more details. to the building of the modern Marine Harvest Scotland.’

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Above: Ben Hadfield

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12/01/2016 16:25:13

All the latest industry news from Europe

NEWS...

Norwegian seafood exports hit new high NORWEGIAN seafood exports reached a record 74.5 billion Norwegian kroners (NOK) during 2015, NOK 5.8 billion more than the previous year, with farmed salmon again taking the lead role.

In fact, farmed salmon and trout accounted for around two thirds of this impressive total.

Terje E Martinussen, managing director of the Norwegian Seafood Council, said: ‘In a year with trade restrictions in several markets and an import embargo in

Russia, the result was better than expected.

‘A weak Norwegian krone, combined with good demand for fresh products in particular, contributed to a new export record for Norwegian seafood.’

Seafood exports to the EU have reached NOK 50 billion for the first time, after a growth of 17 per cent in 2015.

The EU takes in 67 per cent of total seafood exports, and it is decidedly the most important market for

the Norwegian seafood industry.

Another important characteristic of Norwegian seafood exports is that more than 60 per cent is fresh product and this share is increasing.

‘The growth in the EU and the United States in recent years also shows the importance of government and industry working well together in order to obtain access to markets,’ said Martinussen.

‘Good trade agreements are absolutely

critical in order to achieve growth in new markets in the future.’

Norway exported salmon and trout worth NOK 50 billion in 2015, another record and an

increase of more than eight per cent or NOK 3.9 billion on 2014 figures.

The country exported codfish worth NOK 13 billion in 2015, another

record, and an increase of eight per cent.

Norway exported shrimp, shellfish and molluscs worth NOK 1.5 billion in 2015, up 52 per cent from 2014.

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12/01/2016 16:20:12

European News

Galicia invests in mussel men

Bakkafrost secures 850m kroner loan

THE Galician regional government is investing $2.2 million to help mussel processors, reported Intrafish. The funding – three-quarters of it from the European Maritime and Fisheries fund – will be used for Galician mussel processors who are already operating in the region in an effort to boost their productivity.

BAKKAFROST, the principal salmon farming company in the Faroe Islands, has secured a new 850,000 Danish kroner (DKK) loan agreement with Nordea, one of the largest financial services groups in the Scandinavian region, which has also agreed to extend and restructure its credit facilities.

The new bank loan is a multi-currency revolving credit facility for a period of five years and secures credit facilities totalling DKK 850 million Danish kroners. This

figure is broadly equivalent to almost 114 million euros or £82.3 million sterling.

In addition to the DKK 850 million credit facility, the new agreement has an accordion increase option of a maximum DKK 750 million. (Companies typically purchase an accordion feature in anticipation of the need for more working capital.)

Gunnar Nielsen, chief financial officer of Bakkafrost, said: ‘This new agreement reflects the better market conditions and

THE new centre left government in the Faroe Islands is planning a major increase in welfare spending in its first budget – and

has signalled that the country’s fish farming and fishing industries will pay for it.

And these sectors are not happy they are

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will improve our cost of funding.

‘The new agreement will strengthen Bakkafrost’s financial position and ensure sufficient financial

from feed production to smolt, farming, value added products and sales.

Its activities also include the production of fishmeal, fish oil and salmon feed , and it operates licences on 14 farming fjords.

The company has embarked on an impressive growth programme, including the construction of a new factory, and this financing will clearly help that project.

Bakkafrost has said it expects a harvest of around 48,000 tonnes in 2016.

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going to foot most of the bill.

Elected in September, the Social Democrat administration has promised ‘more solidarity, self-sufficiency and liberty’ for the 48,788 (at the last count) inhabitants of the islands.

The government says it is also intending to develop the welfare state, with low earners receiving a tax break and paid parental leave increases from 38 to 44 weeks.

Some 8.6 million Danish kroners (DKK) is being set aside to help poorer families.

To fund this spending the government proposes to raise licence fees for both trawler

fishing and processing and for aquaculture from a current very small level of just over half a per cent to 15 per cent.

The sector fears jobs could be lost.

Norway reshuffles fisheries minister NORWEGIAN Prime Minister Erna Solberg reshuffled her cabinet last month, replacing fisheries minister Elisabeth Aspaker with Per Sandberg.

Aspaker, who was in her post for two years, moves to the foreign ministry and will be responsible for EU policy.

The communication director at Marine Harvest, Ola Helge Hjetland, said: ‘We congratulate Per Sandberg with the important job as minister of fisheries and look forward to good cooperation.’

Sandberg was elected to the Norwegian parliament in 1997 and has been deputy leader of the Progress Party since 2006. He has a reputation as an outspoken critic of Norway’s ‘hotel standard’ prison facilities and of its immigration Above: Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg policies.

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

12/01/2016 16:20:44

All the latest industry news from Europe

Photos: NSK Ship Design

Ship builder explains farm ship concept

Above: The 70m vessel Høydal is dwarfed by Nordlaks’ Havfarm

ously been flirting with the idea of producing a larger construction from scratch.

‘Berg came up with a very thorough idea of how to move from aquaculture pens to aquaculture ships in Above: Thomas Myhre the open ocean. ship is 360m long. The ‘Steel louse skirts at a longest aircraft hangar depth of 10m will make in the world, the Amer- sea lice history. When ican USS Enterprise, is the Havfarm lays at 342m long. anchor, the spreading One Havfarm will be area for waste products able to contain 10,000 will be 27 times larger tonnes of salmon – than it would be for ormore than two million dinary pens, a massive fish.

472,000 sq m.’

The facilities will be Nordlaks selected NSK able to withstand a sig- Ship Design because nificant wave height of they are a leading de10m, and can be raised sign firm that already by four metres during has a strong presence inclement weather. The in the aquaculture ocean farm itself will market. extend 10m below sea They design level. everything from sea The farm will be pens to LNG-powered constructed as a steel fish feed carriers and frame for six ‘cages’ wellboats, and have measuring 50 by 50m managed major redeon the surface, with signs of existing ships aquaculture nets going as well. to a depth of 60m.

Myhre said: ‘Our staff NSK Ship Design sales at Harstad is a team manager Thomas Myhre with great expertise said: ‘When Inge Berg in the area of project from Nordlaks conmanagement, and with tacted us, we had previ- both them and our engineering team at Arkhangelsk, we had the specialist expertise required to bring the idea to life.

‘This was a unique chance to take a project from scratch to construction in conjuncAbove: The Havfarm is a massive 430m long FOLLOWING the announcement by Norwegian farmer Nordlaks last month of a revolutionary concept in aquaculture, NSK Design has released more details of its new fish farming ship.

NSK Ship Design has been working on the special project with Nordlaks since June 2015.

On the drawing board is a ship known as Havfarm (Ocean Farm), 430m in length and 54m wide. It will lay at anchor, fixed to the seafloor, using the offshore industry’s technological solutions.

Norway is a world leader in this field, and the Norwegian industry is comfortable creating solutions that can withstand very tough conditions at sea.

The aquaculture industry is basically being taken from the fjords to the ocean. If the project is completed as it has been designed, it will be the longest ship in the world.

For reference, the world’s largest cruise

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European News.indd 9

tion with Nordlaks.’

The then Fisheries Minister Elisabeth Aspaker and the Norwegian government announced free concessions for aquaculture businesses willing to make larger investments into new technology in order to overcome the industry’s challenges with regard to environmental and space issues.

Shortly afterwards, the Havfarm ships project was launched. Now Nordlaks is well ahead in the process, and has applied to build three ships, each of which will cost between 600 and 700 million NOK (£46-54 million).

Inge Berg said: ‘We’re hoping we can begin using the technology in 2017, if we are provided with development concessions to do this.’

Ireland needs reform to meet farm targets IRELAND will not meet new aquaculture targets unless a backlog of 600 licence applications is tackled and a radical reform of state regulation is implemented, said Above: Simon Coveney the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).

The targets were set out in the national Seafood Operational Programme announced last month by Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney in agreement with the European Commission.

IFA aquaculture executive Richie Flynn said that the Seafood Programme must be welcomed in principle.

‘However, the record shows there are more licence applications awaiting decision in the department offices in Clonakilty now than when Minister Coveney took office.’

The IFA said the minister must commit to spending every cent of the 30 million euros earmarked for aquaculture development within the first two years of the programme and add whatever additional funds are required from the exchequer for each subsequent year to make up for the serious ground lost by industry due to his department’s failure to tackle the licensing problem.

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12/01/2016 16:21:17

World News

NEWS...

£2m grant will benefit farmers in India A £1.97 million grant will help reduce the impact of major diseases in small-scale fish farms in India, Bangladesh and Malawi.

The University of Exeter and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) are leading on the BBSRC-Newton Fund project, which will develop and apply new molecular biology techniques to aquaculture.

Fish farming contributes significantly to global food security and poverty reduction.

In Bangladesh and India the shrimp fishing industry sustains the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of poor people.

Fish farming too is fundamental to the lives of small-scale

The fishy way to lose weight THE way to lose weight could be found in adding certain types of fish to a New Year diet. Researchers in Japan have found that Omega-3 fish oil of the type found in salmon and sardines can help reduce the amount of unwanted fat.

The Japanese found that the Omega-3 oil turned bad fat cells into healthy cells, which are able to burn off extra calories and can lead to weight reduction.

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Above: Fish farming sustains poor communities

farmers in India and in developing countries around the world.

Disease is the biggest single factor limiting growth in aquaculture (with associated annual losses estimated at more than $6 billion globally) and combat-

ing disease is critical for both the protection of the livelihoods of small scale farmers and for achieving national and global targets for aquaculture growth to help reduce poverty.

In this project, environmental DNA (eDNA)

methods will be applied to help understand the microbiome (assemblages of microbes and pathogens) in fish and shellfish culture ponds, and within the organisms themselves, for developing early warning of diseases and for avoiding disease outbreaks in low income countries.

A central theme in this project is the alignment of the efforts of farmers, health professionals, researchers and national authorities to help prevent disease outbreaks.

Professor Charles Tyler, of the University of Exeter, who will lead the work, said: ‘This grant provides a wonderful opportunity for us to combine our molecular skills in biosciences at Exeter, with

the expertise in disease diagnosis, pathology, and eDNA at Cefas.’

Cefas lead Dr David Bass said: ‘As part of this project we aim to develop simple and accurate early warning molecular based tools for use by farmers, enabling them to pre-empt and avoid the impacts of disease events.

‘We will engage and train farmers in accurate disease diagnostics and establish communication and training networks that will disseminate the outputs of the project as widely as possible.

In order to achieve this we will use cutting edge microscopy and molecular tools to understand the microbiome of aquaculture ponds and how this relates to disease outbreaks.’

This project builds on a strategic alliance forged between the University of Exeter and Cefas, led by Professor Tyler and Dr Grant Stentiford (Cefas).

Professor Tyler said: ‘We established an agreement with Cefas five years ago which has jointly funded 10 PhDs studentships and I am delighted to say that we are now extending this agreement for a further five years, with a joint commitment of £800,000 to fund an additional 10 PhD studentships.’

Dr Stentiford said: ‘The new agreement will allow us to grow our expertise collectively to help make a difference, particularly in areas such as disease diagnosis and prevention in aquaculture.’

Huge aquaculture boost for Zululand SOUTH Africa is preparing for a major expansion of its fish farming industry in its Zululand region in a move which it hopes will create 6,000 direct and 10,000 indirect jobs.

The South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) is launching a pilot fish farm project this year designed to produce a species known as dusky kob or kabeljou, just offshore near Richards Bay. DAFF aquaculture adviser Keagan Halley said the cage-culture operation will be ‘one of the first of its kind’ near the port, at a cost of 6.4 million South African rand.

‘It will contribute towards the development of a sustainable and competitive marine fin fish farming industry in South Africa with international recognition for its product quality, environmental awareness and technical innovation.’

The Zululand Observer reports that the goal is to produce 60 tonnes of farmed fish by next year and prepare the project for commercialisation and secure investment.

It says that once the approvals for expansion have been secured, production should increase to 300 tonnes by 2017, and after establishing a hatchery in 2017 production should surge to 1,000 tonnes by 2018.

Halley said: ‘In a nutshell, Richards Bay has been identified as one of the initiatives that will drive the aquaculture sector in SA, which now employs 15,000 people in direct and full-time jobs.’

The department is also planning a 135 million rand dusky kob farm and a 30 million rand ornamental species fish farm in the Zululand region.

Aquaculture is now playing an increasing role in South Africa’s fishing economy, with around 70 million tonnes or 50 per cent of total capacity being produced in fish farms. That figure is certain to increase over the next few years.

Above: Richards Bay

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

12/01/2016 16:18:27

All the latest industry news from around the world

GAA tackles child labour in supply chain THE Global Aquaculture Alliance has banned BAP certified plants from outsourcing shrimp processing to third parties in a move to combat bad labour practices.

The prohibition, which took effect on January 1, 2016, follows reports of child labour and forced labour in the shrimp supply chain, specifically at peeling and heading ‘sheds’.

A shed refers to a seasonal, temporary processing plant that operates independently and is unregistered and unlicensed. Licensed facilities that operate as part of a larger processing plant are not

included in the prohibition.

GAA executive director Wally Stevens said: ‘Our experience over many years with farmed shrimp is that most of the peeling and heading of shrimp is conducted at well run processing facilities, and it is only during infrequent periods of peak supply from farms that outsourcing takes place.

‘The current BAP [Best Aquaculture Practices] processing plant standards require facilities that outsource their peeling or heading operations to maintain appropriate controls over the environmental, social and food safety practices of those outsourced operations.

‘But obviously it would be far better if these processing steps were conducted in-house.’

BAP is the world’s only third-party aquaculture certification programme with seafood processing plant standards; no other aquaculture programme addresses the outsourcing of processing to a third-party entity.

The BAP standards are comprehensive, encompassing the entire aquaculture value chain, from hatcheries and feed mills to farms and processing plants.

GAA takes seriously allegations of child labour and forced labour in the seafood supply chain, and allegations of non-compliance can trigger an unannounced audit, in addition to routine annual audits.

Since its inception in 1997, GAA has regarded social justice as one of the pillars of its responsible aquaculture programme.

BAP certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills are required to meet standards for adequate wages, a safe and healthy working environment and prevention of child labour and forced labour.

The BAP programme is based on third-party audits by independent certification bodies to ensure compliance with the standards.

Huon faces environmental bill after strong season AUSTRALIA’S Huon Aquaculture Company will have to pay more than a quarter of a million dollars for an environmental study after it exceeded a farming licence condition regarding nitrogen levels.

The company, one of Tasmania’s biggest farmed salmon producers, reported to the Environment Department (DPIPWE) that it had exceeded its forecast levels of nitrogen input into the Huon River and Port Esperance area by 277 tonnes or 42 per cent over 12 months.

Salmonid marine farming operations in the Huon River and Port Esperance Marine Farming Development Plan 2002 are subject to an upper limit on the amount of dissolved nitrogen that can be released into the plan area.

The company has been ordered to pay the full $260,000 cost of a comprehensive assessment to determine the extent of any environmental consequences, and this has been reflected in amended marine farming licence conditions.

Huon Aquaculture said it alerted DPIPWE to the situation, blaming additional feeding. Huon’s Peter Bender told ABC News last month that the extra feeding was temporary and he believed there would be no impact on the area.

He said the growth rates in the salmon had been unprecedented, which he attributed to

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new pens and feed technology.

‘The performance of the new Fortress Pens and feed technology has been astounding, and we’ve experienced our strongest growing season on record, which on the one hand is terrific, but on the other hand meant we were feeding bigger fish more feed,’ he said.

‘The success of the changes made through the Company’s Controlled Growth Strategy have taken us by surprise.’

Bender also said unforeseen delays in changes to leases, and the move to offshore farming in Storm Bay had also played a role.

Canadian green lobby considers GM appeal

ENVIRONMENTAL groups in Canada have until early February to appeal the court decision last December to allow the production of GM salmon eggs in Prince Edwards Island, reported Global News.

Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax and Living Oceans Society argued in court hat the federal government did not follow its own legislated rules before clearing AquaBounty to produce the eggs. However, the

judge dismissed the claims.

AquaBounty CEO Ron Stotish says the court ruling supports the company’s claim that the eggs do not pose any risk to the environment or human health.

The decision comes after the US Food and Drug Administration approved the AquaBounty salmon for human consumption in November, making it the first GM animal product deemed safe for the dining table.

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World News

Greens welcome Tasmania’s low- Technology spurs growth of offshore farming impact hatcheries

THE Tasmanian Greens have welcomed moves by the aquaculture industry towards a more environmentally friendly fish hatchery system.

Petuna Aquaculture has opened a new $10 million recirculation hatchery in Cressy in the state’s north that will produce 3.5 million fish per year.

The system will reuse nearly all of its water and the company plans to phase out the use of traditional flowthrough ponds, which have raised environmental concerns about fish waste entering nearby waterways.

Petuna CEO Dr Mark Porter told ABC News the new system was

more efficient: ‘It uses less than five per cent of the water that a traditional [flow-through] system would.

‘We’re using less than 200 litres per minute in the system and that’s roughly equivalent to a bath tap running 24 hours a day.

‘Because it’s complete environmental control, through temperature, photo period and salinity - it gives us the opportunity to put the very best fish to sea every time.’

The facility will grow salmon and trout destined for the company’s ocean leases near Satellite Island in the south-east and

Macquarie Harbour off the west coast.

The facility also comes with 26 new jobs.

As Tasmania’s aquaculture industry chases its goal to produce $1 billion worth of fish a year by 2030, the Tasmanian Greens said adopting the recirculation system was critical.

Huon Aquaculture and Tassal have both installed similar hatcheries. The Environmental Protection Agency and island fisheries service are currently reviewing the performance of hatcheries to decide if they should be regulated. The review is expected to be published soon.

THE first offshore aquaculture facility in federally regulated waters of the United States has been developed by Californian company Catalina Sea Ranch, World Fishing reported.

It holds a pioneering permit for developing 100 acres of ocean space approximately six miles offshore from Huntington Beach, California.

This innovative company is developing an Ocean Internet of Things platform - a unique communication system that will provide the link for a cloud-based solution to enable remote, real time environmental monitoring and will allow taking a pulse of an area of the ocean to understand trends, anticipate problems and devise mitigation measures for immediate corrective actions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Integrated Ocean Obser-

vation System (IOOS) arranged for the acquisition of a NOMAD buoy to serve as the Ocean Internet of Things platform for providing governmental agencies, the scientific community and research institutions with a better understanding of the ocean.

To measure any environmental impact from aquaculture, technology based solutions are needed.

The company said that science based data will foster best practices and the regulatory criteria for developing this vast global coastal ocean space in a responsible manner.

Catalina Sea Ranch also said the majority of aquaculture’s future growth must occur in offshore open ocean waters, where it is developing technologies for the advancement of sustainable aquaculture and marine spatial planning.

The Ocean Internet of Things will be deployed early in 2016.

Above: Huntington Beach

Salmon virus arrives in BC THE European variant of infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) has arrived in British Columbia, according to a study of more than 1,000 farmed and wild fish published on January 6 in the Virology Journal.

Under the title ‘Discovery of variant infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) of European genotype in British Columbia, Canada’, the study provides the first published evidence of the arrival in British Columbia of the most feared virus in the salmon farming industry.

ISAV has spread as far as Chili in Atlantic salmon eggs, where a decade ago it did $2 billion in damages and outbreaks.

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12/01/2016 16:19:10

All the latest industry news from around the world

End of era for world’s biggest seafood market

Photo: Dariusz Jemielniak

TSUKIJI, Tokyo’s famous wholesale fish market, is to close down after the city government decided to open a new market further south, reports the Economist.

Some 60,000 people work in the old market, where more than 400 species, including whale meat, sea urchins, seaweed and caviar, are sold, and whole tuna is traded for six figure sums in pre-dawn auctions.

Tsukiji is the world’s biggest seafood market and a major tourist attraction in the Japanese capital.

But with Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 summer Olympics, a new traffic artery will cut

Above: Tsukiji fish market

through Tsukiji and part of the site will become a temporary press centre.

The site, between the Sumida River and the Ginza shopping district, has be-

come too small, old and crowded, said Yutaka Maeyasui, the executive in charge of moving the market.

An earthquake could bring the roof down.

The new market is

reportedly being built on a wharf whose soil is contaminated by the toxic effluent from a former gasworks. The clean-up and negotiations delayed the move for

over a decade.

But it will have more space in its new home, at the larger location of Toyosu, in Koto, when it moves in November this year.

Many traders below Maeyasui’s office in the old market belong to families that have been there since the market opened in the 1930s, after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 destroyed its predecessor.

‘You won’t find anyone here who supports the relocation,’ said Chieko Oyoshi, who runs the tuna business her grandfather founded.

Big supermarket chains and wholesalers already eat into her business by dealing directly with the ports and fish farms that supply Tsukiji.

The move will kill whatever trade is left, she told the Economist.

QUALITY FOR LAND AND SEA Storvik Aqua Ltd Equipment and Technology for Aquaculture Serving the industry for 30 years Providing support and solutions

www.storvikaqua.co.uk lc@storvik.co.uk Tel: 01546 603989

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ring it more upsecure an extensive interview with Scotland’s recently apl columns from pointed Minister for the Environment, Paul Wheelhouse. est aquaculture Looking further afield there are also interesting insights – ASSG SG and SSPOTrade – to Associations into oyster growing around the globe and also an t topics of theTrade day associations overview–ofASSG the Hungarian aquaculture industry, which is ors respectively. beginning to evolve from production of carps to higher d we hope you’ll value predatory fish. We hope you enjoy all the changes. FF

has 0 years of the stry. Now ournalist, er food magazine.

ry Board

s

ons culture

BY JANET H BROWN

Rob Fletcher News Editor

Paul Wheelhouse is Scotland’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change and is an MSP for the South of Scotland.

Janet Brown works to support and promote all aspects of sustainable shellfish culture and restoration via The Shellfish Team and edits The Grower.

Hatcheries: a chicken The other side of the pond Can the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers learn anything from and egg conundrum?

8 the way America’s East Coast Shellfish Growers Association is organised?

What we can learn from America’s community centred restoration programmes

D I

r Robert B Rheault – more commonly substantial federal research grants to address critical industry research known as ‘Skid’ Rheault (Rheault being priorities. pronounced ‘row’) or Bob – set up the How has the ECSGA grown and is it still growing? recently explored the benefits that North It is very small yet their annual production for last year was 30 milEast Coast Shellfish Growers Association We grow in membership by about 10 to 20 per cent a year and we America’s shellfish aquaculture industry lion eyed oyster larvae, 10 million quahogs at 1mm size and 20 million ols (ECSGA) in 2004 and has been its executive had a sharp increase this past year, but we still only have a small frachas accrued from their community centred scallop set. director for six years. tion of the industry as members. Of the estimated 1,300 farms on the d and funded restoration work, and this has These were all for putting in the public beds to enhance the populaSkid became involved in the idea of an asEast Coast, we only have about 15 per cent. The nature of the industry led me to think more about what needs to tion, which can then be harvested by the local people (under licence). sociation because he had been working as an is such that many farmers are very small, part-time operations who come first for the growth of shellfish aquaculThe hatchery can still apply for and obtain other funds but their oyster farmer in a state without an aquaculwon’t pay dues. There are few large farms, and several of these believe ture, the hatchery or the grow-out. long-term survival is underwritten by the municipalities and it has ture industry at the time – Rhode Island. they don’t need to join an association. They can hire their own lobbyist.

The eastern seaboard of the USA has a long been operating there since 1976. rectory ‘I had to be very active on the state level to What are the main issues facing ECSGA? history of restoration/conservation. On Cape Its existence has meant potential farmers on the island have been get things going,’ he said. ‘I established a state We spend a lot of time and energy dealing with shellfish sanitation Cod many of the small towns have their own able to obtain initial seed for start-up businesses. growers’ association with a few allies, started issues.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus control seems to dominate much of my asurer, Steve Bracken, Miguad, Kadri and Ken Hughes shellfish Herve constables whoSunil police the shellfish On the Chesapeake Bay there has been a catastrophic loss in oyster writing an industry newsletter and sent it to all time.

We are also trying to rectify the trade war with the EU so we can n: Andrew Balahura resources, and part of their annual activities harvests over the last century, partly caused by overfishing but also the state legislators, brought in guest speakers restore some of the lucrative connections we had in EU markets five wds wdowds@fi Alister Bennett due to significant disease problems with Dermo and MSX. are shupdate.com to run seasonalPublisher: hatcheries for restocking from other states where things were going years ago. We are trying to get acknowledgement for the ecosystem shellfish public beds.editor@fishfarmer-magazine.com That is not so different from our own scenario in the UK, where Fax: +44 (0)the 131 551 7901 e-mail: well and where nary a negative word was services we provide through nutrient credit trading, and we are conHatcheries can be funded by local municiharvests of our native oyster have been devastated by overfishing and .com www.fiheard. shupdate.com Eventually we got some traction and stantly working to improve water quality and expand harvest areas. palities as is the case in one shellfish hatchery disease, in our case, bonamiasis. regulations thatEH5 were2DL holding back ettes Park, 496fixed Ferrythe Road, Edinburgh Are there different chapters in the ECSGA or are members mainly I visited in October in Martha’s Vineyard.

The US response to their problem has been geared towards restoraindustry.’ oyster folk? er’, P.O. Box 1, the Crannog Lane, Lochavullin Industrial Estate, Oban, Argyll, PA34 4HB tion and led to the establishment of an oyster breeding programme We represent about 60 per cent clam farms, 40 per cent oyster farms 0) 1631 568001This led on to a larger consortium, with a in 1997. This was from an initiative of the Virginia General Assembly number of growers getting together at various Clockwise from top right: and there is a nascent mussel industry. wanting to address the problem of the diseases by breeding lines of f world £95 including postage. All Air Mail.

ECSGA meeting; oyster; meetings and the idea of establishing an East I have heard you talk at conferences about the importance of lobbyoysters that would be resistant. ietors Wyvex Coast MediaShellfish Ltd by Headley Brothers Ltd., Ashford, Kent ISSN 0262-9615 Dr Robert B Rheault.

Growers Association was baning – what do you advise?

The Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Centre (ABC) led died about. They had seen how well organised It is really important to ensure that the regulators don’t put you out of

by Stan Allen is now the largest breeding programme for oysters in the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association business. If you are not involved 3 in the process of writing the regulam the US and one of the largest in the world.

Opposite page: Rick Karney, (PCSGA) had become, how effective they could tions, then the law of unintended consequences dictates that they will They succeeded in producing lines that could thrive in the presence who established the be in meetings with regulators, how they probably hurt you if you don’t protect yourself. You need to participate of the disease – three lines to suit the different salinity regimes found Martha’s Vineyard focused government research dollars toward in the scientific research, the public outreach and the education of your within the Chesapeake Bay - and this was done with the aim of restor- shellfish hatchery in key problems – they wanted that. legislators. By demonstrating the growth in green jobs, the sustainable 08/02/2013 11:24:01 ing stocks and helping the oyster fishery.

1976, with some seed While setting up the ECSGA, Skid continued seafood production and the ecosystem benefits, we can enlist the help scallop reared in the But in the process, they have also produced faster growing oysters to run his own company, farming and marof politicians when the regulators get crazy, or if we have need of rehatchery,apictured that make aquaculture more attractive, such that now Virginia is the keting oysters trading as Moonstone Oysters search dollars. Educating the legislators is a constant task.

There is huge below left largest producer of farmed oysters in the US. working out of Narragansett, Rhode Island, turnover and they know nothing about your industry. If you don’t have ABC can supply the disease resistant brood stock and have also and he is still an adjunct faculty member in time to do it then you need to pay someone to do it for you. This is why produced triploid and tetraploid oysters for the aquaculture industry. the University of Rhode Island’s Department busy professionals are members of trade associations.

Producing improved genetic lines takes years of patient work and of Fisheries and Aquaculture. He established Is export a major interest for your growers? having public funds would seem to be essential. the East Coast Shellfish Research Institute We are experiencing an explosion in the market for oysters right The restoration itself has also provided benefits in terms of the and has been successful in attracting several now, so there is not a lot of surplus production to send overseas, but ecosystem services in the Chesapeake Bay that come with restored oyster reefs.

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Hatcheries: a chicken and egg conundrum?

They have also “produced faster

growing oysters that make aquaculture more attractive

”

These are also of benefit to the farmers and a similar pattern can be found all down the east coast, where restoration drives aquaculture by providing at least the initial source of seed.

So the question is, what comes first, hatchery development or aquaculture? If one looks to agriculture this is a no brainer since without hatcheries the genetic improvements that have been vital to agriculture (and which are already being demonstrated in aquaculture) are not possible.

The real question is who pays. The Crown Estate/MASTS commissioned a study by a scientist from the Cawthron Institute in New Zealand, Dr Henry Kaspar, to look into the need for a multi-species shellfish hatchery in Scotland to assist the development of the industry and the restoration of native oyster reefs.

The report, published in late 2014, highlights all the complexities of hatchery development, not least this need for long-term financial support since the benefits of a hatchery operation, particularly when breeding improved stock, take years not months.

So the planned establishment of a pilot scale mussel hatchery in Scalloway, with funding from the Scottish government, HIE and SAIC, is to be welcomed.

And so is the recent development by Ardtoe’s Viking Fish Farms, with their major investment in new and improved facilities for their shellfish hatchery and associated research facilities, funded internally by Benchmark Holdings.

Maybe these ventures will illuminate the conundrum, but one hopes that both will aid the development of the shellfish industry here.

But maybe what both are lacking is the additional funding that might be possible if greater attention was given to the value of restoration work in the UK. Janet H Brown is editor of The Grower (www.assg.org.uk). FF

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US LEADS IN RESEARCH LINKS THERE is another aspect of shellfish culture that is very different in the US. That is the role of the dedicated extension services of many of their universities, which provide a real link between research and business.

If you want to see just how much help is provided, take a look at what is offered to shellfish farmers in Florida – even the tools to allow them to calculate the environmental benefits (in terms of nitrogen removal and carbon sequestration) of their farming activity - see shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/

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Trade Associations – SSPO

BY PROFESSOR PHIL THOMAS

Underpinning Climate

provenance concerns

Do we think enough abouttowhat gives the Radical response needed address industry itseffi edge in key markets? production ciency

I

mayface not of bethe politi cally correct to say so at nt the excepti onal weather present farmedacross Atlantithe c salmon patt erns but occurring world, would many not have become Scotland’s leading people now view climate change as afood reality export without Crown positive and accept that the human actiEstate’s vity is probably engagement aquaculture development the underlyingwith cause. back the the 1980s.

Politiincally, debate is no longer about the Now, a signifi part of the facts of aquaculture the situationisbut aboutcant developing agency’s leasingonportf olio and is miti gationmarine and adaptati approaches toregumodlarly celebrated ulate its impacts.by the Crown Estate’s Scottish Marine Aquaculture Awards present event. This year’s However, such approaches signifi eventpolicy in Edinburgh on the 11 June cant challenges, especially inwas the the food usual highly sh sector wheresuccessful globalisatishowcase on plays a for keyScotti strategic aquaculture and supply a rare opportunity role in balancing and demand.for industry join together toconsider mark its its success.

Notocountry can now food econTheinCrown Estate is presently at the centre omy isolation; internati onal imports and exof further devoluti on discussions between the ports of animal feedstuff s, food raw materials UK government and Scottish consumer government.

The and fresh and manufactured food long-termare future of key Scotti sh functi ons -reproducts fundamental to food security mains and and willunclear be more soprofessional in future. expertise could be squandered in eagerness the processtoofbeorganisati onal Politi cians, in an seen to be change. taking action, often lean towards approachthe Estate’s core on, experti and esBoth based onCrown taxation or regulati these two the Marine Aquaculture Awards are imporlevers of power over which they have greatest tant in maintaining the distinctive coherence control. ofBut, Scotland’s aquaculture and itchange would and be a in the context of climate tragedy if they became casualtimay es ofnot politi food supply, those approaches becal the change. most effective; they risk compromising market This year’s event was hostedalbyunindynamics andAwards they may have substanti actress,consequences. writer and comedian Jo Caulfield, an tended inspired choice by whoever made theempts booking.

The Scotti sh government’s failed att to She was very funny and and kept implement minimum unitentertaining pricing for alcohol thea proceedings withina Scotland swing. Only as public healthgoing measure wellonce did she stray, when wondered ‘proveillustrate the diffi cultishe es of exerting what political nance actually meant’. leverage through food taxes: no one can be in In doubt a roomabout full ofthe folkEUwhose livelihoods any Court’s intense dislike

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should “beWeorganFish ising our “ farming training and has a very educati on low climate provisions change much impact bett er compared with beef farming

” ”

depend on that the provenance of their products quickly an aufor policies would damage the operati on she of the singlesensed market. dience response and moved to safer comedic there some Similarly, for countries like the UK (where 50 material: per cent of foodare and things you just don’t joke about! animal feed is imported) additional tax or regulatory burdens on home However, me asking myself whether we think enough producti on, her partiremark cularlyleft of farmed terrestrial and aquati c animals, about underpinning of theproducti provenance of Scottish farmed fish – and run thethe obvious risk of driving on overseas, with job losses for me that’s farmed and economic penaltisalmon. es at home, but with no net benefit in terms of There change. is no doubt that Scottish provenance is important to our indusclimate try – it gives us the edge in allargument our key markets.

There is, I believe, a strong for governments adopting more Provenance nedofinworking various with ways the butfood mostsector peopletowill agree radical thinkingcan to be finddefi ways increase that it goes beyond appearance and sensory theprofinal producti on effi ciencythe and reduce climate change qualiti per kges of of food product: flavour,resorti texture, visual presentati on and duced, without ng to taxati on or regulati on.product consistency are always key factors in consumer is about This will improve market competitiappeal venessbut andprovenance reduce climate impact much more more.effectively than any eco-tax or eco-regulation, no matter much It refl ects a wider concept of consumer quality assurance, including: how well intenti oned. the place where the fishpart is grown processed; the professional Earlier this month, as of theand Scotti sh Rural Development Prointegrity of producti on and processing methods; andscheme the quality, gramme, thethe Scotti sh government introduced a funded to commitment and on care the people promote producti effiofciency in beefinvolved farming.– the professional skills, experti and dedicati ofkind the producers themselves.

This isse, to passion be applauded as juston the of radical thinking needed In Scotland our ‘place of producti on’ gives us a huge naturalon advanto develop a constructive approach to mitigation and adaptati to tage because we grow fish in the pristine coastal waters of some of climate change. the beauti and wild scenic the areas of the world, and our brand is Of most course, fish ful farming is outside financial framework of the Rural protected by its PGI status.and it has a very low climate change impact Development Programme Likewise,with adopti on farming. of the Scottish Finfish Code of Good Practice compared beef allied with the commitment to a contemplati range of independent However, the industry’s underlyingdeep principle is still worth ng. There farm quality assurance programmes, including RSPCAthrough fish welfare is scope to increase producti on efficiency in fishthe farming scheme, builds on the ourcontrol statutory regulatory improved fish geneti cs,underlying optimisingstrength the scaleofand of farm prosystems to assure our producti on systems. duction systems, and minimising mortality losses at all stages of the Finally,on thecycle. skills, expertise, passion and dedication of our farmers producti can demonstrated in abundance day in and day out – and they were Thebeindustry might therefore give thought to expressing these objecrecent awards event.to climate change, needing no tishowcased ves as partby ofthe a coordinated approach However, being wholly ve and forward looking, it isthat thismight third government interventi onobjecti other than such R&D investment area of provenance where the Scottish industry has greatest scope for be helpful to the cause. systematic development. That is not to say that our industry’s skills and se areofnot the sh highest calibre, but it is to Philprofessional Thomas wasexperti chairman theof Scotti Salmon Producers’ Organirecognise that our vocati onal educati onal and training structures, and FF sation from 2008 until the end of last year.

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Industry pioneer – John Howard

Made to order

After decades in the business John Howard knows his nets – and his customers

BY JENNY HJUL

J

ohn Howard started work in Boris Nets, the family business, when he was five. His parents, Boris and Lilian, had to go to work so he was taken along as well, he says.

That was 55 years ago and he is still there, now chairman and managing director, and one of the firm’s ‘lifers’, who also include his older sister Annette who has been there even longer.

Although the Fleetwood based business has seen many changes since the Fifties, its core principles of providing handmade quality products and a reliable service have remained the same.

The move into aquaculture came in 1984, when the British fishing industry, which had driven the company’s growth, went into decline.

‘I was at a fishing exhibition in Grimsby in 1984 and a chap asked if we made fish farming nets,’ said John. ‘I said no, we don’t. But when he said his company bought about £100,000 a year, I said starting from today, we do!’

The customer was Ron Stevenson of Golden Sea Produce (now part of Scottish Sea Farms) and John went to Scotland to see what they wanted. It was the start of the expansion years in fish farming and the farms were having ‘massive problems’ getting deliveries, said John.

Boris Nets had had a foothold in Scotland, with a fishing net factory in Aberdeenshire, funded through a tie-up with Knox. But the partnership ended in the late seventies and Boris shut down its Scottish operation.

To exploit the opportunities in the burgeoning salmon industry, John became a frequent visitor to farms north of the border. After the initial contact with Golden Sea Produce, he was called by another farmer, Rostad Salmon (now part of the Scottish Salmon Company).

‘They said they’d heard we were making fish farming nets, although we hadn’t made any at that stage,’ said John, ‘but I went to see him, delivered it. He was happy and said, is this a free net? I said, oh go on made a design for him, made a prototype and then, and he went on to order 100!

‘Then the next big order came from Marine Harvest, in about 1985.

It was really me going up there and discussing what they were getting and what they were missing. I actually worked on Marine Harvest sites, mainly on Skye, for about three weeks, rather than just be told what they needed.

‘Making a fishing net is much harder than making a fish farming net because when you have a fish farming net you have a structure you’re fastening it to, therefore provided the net fits the structure, the design is fairly easy. With a fishing net you’re relying on the pressure of water to open it.’

So it wasn’t too big a technical challenge?

‘It was a negative technical challenge. We were told at the time there’s no way you can make a net with segmented bases for circles – this is just

to expand “butWe’dI’mlike probably not

aggressive enough…I like to sell to people who want to buy from me

Above: John Howard

”

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Industry pioneer – John Howard

when companies were starting to go for circles rather than squares. The industry standard was square but the first order we got from Rostad was for 40m circles.

‘We just made the bottom of the net like the segments of an orange. They hadn’t thought of that. It’s nothing at all to do with laying it out on the floor and cutting it out; it’s a pure mathematical calculation. Basically, we could make a segmented base with however many segments they wanted.’

Presumably he’s doing this all on computers now?

‘No, they’re too slow! The problem with computers is they don’t give you the intuitive feel of the net. And you can make some gross errors on computers.’

Perhaps it should be pointed out at this stage that John has a degree in maths and trained as an accountant, skills that have helped him maintain his family’s reputation for innovation, although he says the mathematical calculations are easy.

‘The maths is sub O-level standard; some companies try to make it sound more complicated than it is. One of our competitors bought one of our nets so he could dissect it and find out how we’d made this segmented base.’

The aquaculture market grew to dominate the business, but John admits that his refusal to compromise on quality has cost the company important contracts.

‘All fish farming nets are made in the Fleetwood factory and our netting [top quality knotless nylon netting] is sourced in Europe. The

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Industry Pioneer.indd 18

only problem we have now is price. The majority of our competitors are manufacturing abroad so what’s happened to us is that we’re renowned for good deliveries but we don’t tend to get the big orders because they can go to China or India and get an acceptable – I won’t say it’s good – net.

‘Our share of the fish farming market has decreased because we’re still offering a net manufactured in the UK and roped by hand.

‘We are known for heavy weather nets, and not just off Scotland. We Clockwise from above: Boris had one customer, farming seabass, hit by 200-mile-an-hour winds in the Howard, John’s late father, who founded the Canary Islands. On a site of about 15 nets we lost only one, but they had bsuiness; hand-made another site around the corner, supplied by someone else, and they lost in Fleetwood; John every net.’ at Aquaculture UK in Boris Nets were the first company to bring Dyneema into the UK market Aviemore and its application in freshwater is very good, said John.

‘It’s chew resistant to otters basically. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much of a run at the Dyneema in the sea water market because of cost.

‘We seem to have become specialists in exposed sites and freshwater.

The two opposite ends of the scale.

‘I get phone calls from the site managers of some of the bigger companies asking, why aren’t you selling nets to us John. And I say I’m just too dear. I’m talking about 10 per cent difference.

‘There’s lots of false innovation in fish farm netting. A new product will be given massive hype without any prior usage. One of the reasons we’ve lost out on the market is I will not sell a product unless I know it will do the job.’

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Made to order

The company is small and fully owned by John. There are 30 staff, down from 50 in its heyday, from the Nineties up to about 2005. As well as Scotland, John has customers in the Canaries and Malta (‘both have horrible weather, big stormy seas, very exposed sites’), Madeira, Sri Lanka, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

‘We were the first company to make nets for Chile. When Marine Harvest expanded there we sent the first nets over and then my father went over, in 1987, and showed them how to make nets.’

They also pioneered lightweight tarpaulin for fish treatments in the late Eighties, but don’t have a good share of this market any more.

‘We’d like to expand into it again but I’m probably not aggressive enough,’ said John, laughing. ‘I like to sell to people who want to buy from me.

‘We won’t push a product until we know it works. People reinvent themselves so they can sell, but I’m old school.’

But he has now added salesman Mark Slater, who he has known for 30 years, to his team and they sit in the same office, picking up sales technique from each other.

‘He’s noticed I’ve become more aggressive in my selling – I didn’t need to be in the past. And he doesn’t bullshit as much now! He realises that quality does sell.’

John often gets called for advice and, after so many years in the industry, is happy to be an unpaid consultant.

‘I enjoy talking to customers. The major problem we have is that I don’t like any complaints so I’m not in the ‘buy it cheap and sell it cheap’ mar-

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I don’t “scream

and shout if things go wrong, just point out mistakes so they don’t make them again

”

ket. If someone gets a net from us they expect a good quality product and if there’s anything even tiny wrong with it I actually feel it, I hate it.

‘We looked a few years ago at going to India or China or the Baltic states and buying nets there and re-selling them again but there are quality control issues.

‘I don’t want a phone call every week saying this or that doesn’t work. If I get two phone calls like that a year it annoys me.’

So he would prefer to keep things small?

‘I’d prefer to keep things big and make loads of money! But you can’t have both.’

About eight months ago, the company went into the rope business and now imports ‘very large quantities of rope’ from a major manufacturer overseas, where again, quality control is non-negotiable. He goes to the factory there every two months and watches his coils of rope being made.

‘I don’t scream and shout if things go wrong, just point out mistakes so they don’t make them again. We’ve tested it and it stands out against any other rope produced anywhere in the world. It’s polysteel.’

He said he has just started to provide fish farmers with rope, starting with smaller companies first because they are ‘easier to break into’.

‘The larger ones say they’ll only buy from one source but we’ve been selling our rope to their sources because we’ve had it in stock and they haven’t,’ he said.

Almost 70 per cent of the company’s work is still with aquaculture, and this now includes wrasse and lump fish cages and bespoke

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Industry pioneer – John Howard

predator netting.

Looking back over the past three decades in fish farming, he said one of the highpoints came in the late eighties.

‘We’d been doing Marine Harvest’s seawater work for a while and suddenly I was asked to go and quote for their freshwater work. And Above: Quality is the key I drove up there and walked away with an £800,000 order.’

A low point was when one of the big firms cancelled their contract because John didn’t want to be their exclusive supplier.

‘We’d done three quarters of the work for them for a number of years and they said new company policy was to buy everything from one supplier, but it would have been difficult to maintain our existing customers. We lost £1

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Industry Pioneer.indd 20

million turnover overnight.’

He said his experience being the biggest net maker for the huge trawlers and neglecting smaller boats cost the company when the fishing industry was in the doldrums.

‘That’s why I didn’t want to take the big fish farming contract.’

But John is upbeat, about the industry, and his company.

‘We’ve had a few years where we’ve thought, that wasn’t very good, but we’ve always managed to bounce back again because we’ve got reserves.

‘The industry will continue to expand but I hope when they do go further ashore they won’t have the closed attitude that they have to keep buying from the companies they’re buying from now because that may stall them.’

In fifty years from now will the next generation of Howards be running Boris Nets?

‘Yes,’ said John, ‘we’ll still be here but I don’t know what we’ll be making, though I’m sure it will be something the industry wants.’ FF

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Cleaner fish

Wrasse review Scottish salmon industry gets together to discuss progress in cleaner fish initiatives

T

he salmon industry got together at the beginning of December for a one-day conference focusing on the farming of cleaner fish.

Organised by the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation, the meeting (in the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness) attracted more than one hundred salmon farmers and scientists.

Cleaner fish are delivering exciting opportunities and are part of the industry’s multi-million pound initiative to confront sea lice outbreaks.

Farmers welcomed the chance to discuss the biggest challenge facing the industry, and shared their experience of deploying cleaner fish in seawater pens, exchanging practical information and advice about the latest breeding and husbandry techniques.

They are already seeing a year on year increase in the number of farmed cleaner fish used at seawater farm sites across Scotland, and the industry is driving production and expansion of breeding facilities across the UK. Closing the workshop, the SPPO’s Professor Phil Thomas said: ‘This was a genuinely excellent meeting which served to demonstrate the

massive progress that has been made in this field over the past five years.

‘The grouped sessions on production, nutrition, health and research and development were leading-edge, and all portrayed a focused preoccupation with the most rapid routes to develop and apply the technology.

‘Early results of that application in the field are very impressive. While there is a lot still to learn about the different, critical features of wrasse and lumpsucker technology – and they are not the same – the rate of progress gives great optimism for the widespread introduction of biological control technologies for sea lice throughout the industry.’

The SSPO’s data and research manager Iain Berrill spoke to Fish Farmer afterwards.

‘The presentations and discussions were very useful, judging from the feedback, but people also found it very beneficial to have as much time as possible to talk in the sidelines,’ he said.

‘When research into cleaner fish began a number of years ago our board had a commitment that all information about their production should be freely available across the industry and that’s one of the reasons we held this workshop.

‘We’ve done smaller in-house things before, where we got the producers of cleaner fish together, and this was an extension of that, to keep the information flow going.’

at establishments such as Stirling, Otter Ferry, Machrihanish and Ardtoe.

All the salmon companies in Scotland are looking into this but they have different degrees of involvement. All are using cleaner fish to varying degrees. Everybody has an interest.

Do salmon farmers tend to favour one species over the other?

Wrasse are very good in the warm summer months and become less active in the winter.

Lumpfish are much more used to cold weather conditions and should, in theory, feed throughout the winter so can provide cover in the winter months when wrasse are much less active.

Lumpfish are easier to produce in the hatchery because you can easily get them on to a feed.

Their problem perhaps is that they grow very quickly and are very effective feeders so managing the growth and then tailoring that to deploying them is probably one of the key aspects of producing lumpfish.

Ballan wrasse, of course, are hermaphrodites so you have to work with the biology of them and the juveniles that are produced are much smaller so you have to provide them with different feeds.

Are cleaner fish the holy grail of sea lice management?

There is no sense that they are the ‘holy grail’ in the control of sea lice; rather, we’re looking for How many cleaner fish projects are there? a significant additional tool to the box.

There have been about ten cleaner fish projects There’s a lot of excitement about being able to since 2010, with some of these now coming to a use more cleaner fish, and those cleaner fish all close. There are five research projects in train or being of farmed origin, and managing our own just about to start, mostly now funded through production of the fish. the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre We’ll probably never be in a position where (SAIC). we don’t need access to veterinary medicines or These are dedicated projects with industry and other aspects of sea lice management, but this academic partners but there is also a large range all comes as part of this integrated approach that of research and development activity going on we’re working towards.

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Cleaner fish

Sea lice are always going to be present and our goal is to come up with a strategy that includes lots of things, which when used together work very effectively managing lice as best we can.

That includes things we’ve done for years such as single year class stocking and fallowing.

Above: More than 100 delegates attended the conference, including the SSPO’s Professor Phil Thomas (previous page). Opposite: Dr Iain Berrill (right) addresses the gathering

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What were the main bottlenecks identified at the workshop?

What’s clear is that we are producing two species of fish. The experience we had from forty years of farming salmon and the experience of marine production is that you can use the experience but you have to go through the process of producing these fish.

So, essentially, what we’re trying to do is build up the research and development and develop things in a stepwise manner so it’s not boom or bust. We’re not trying to produce ahead of where we should be.

There are bottlenecks – some are fundamental biology, understanding the biology of the fish, ensuring you are producing a fish that is optimal, which will effectively feed on lice.

What did become apparent is that you sometimes get fish in a population that eat very effectively and some less so. You sometimes have experienced cleaner fish and you have to use those to train the others.

We don’t really know why some do a very good job of cleaning and some do a less good job. We have to go back to the scientists and ensure we overcome some of these obstacles.

“

There was a preoccupation with the most rapid routes to develop and apply the technology

”

We have to underpin everything we do with the biological information we need.

Are the scientists doing what the industry wants them to do?

Definitely. The main funding avenues have all been applied funding resources, such as SAIC and Innovate UK, and other smaller (SARF) funding initiatives have all had that remit in mind. We hope that in the future BBSRC and NERC will support some of the more fundamental research that we need.

Also, on all of these projects there have always been academic and industry partners. These have always been focused on applied outputs. They’ve all been about moving towards a position where we can use cleaner fish more effectively and produce them in the numbers we need.

That’s a goal we’re heading towards; we’re not quite there yet. There has been a significant uptake of the research that’s going on. Events like the one in Inverness only help that. We’re moving in the right direction on that front.

What is the main focus of all the research?

It remains a combination of breeding and understanding the genetic stocks, and nutrition – a lot of the focus has been on ensuring that there are adequate mechanisms to feed these fish.

You might think if you want your fish to clean lice effectively you should stop feeding them any other source of food. But the evidence suggests that’s not the way to do it. You need to keep these fish having an appropriate feed source and that’s when they clean lice more effectively.

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Wrasse review There are still a lot of areas of research we need to do and even in the projects that have been going on they’ve tried to cover all aspects of production and have given us a solid grounding.

But there are questions all the time.

What are the Norwegians doing?

The Norwegians are not any further ahead.

Their initial focus was on wrasse and then they moved heavily towards lumpfish. And now they have drifted back towards a position where they have a fair number of lumpfish and a number of wrasse. They’re producing and using more lumpfish but have a combined approach.

I think they have about 28 hatcheries and the majority of those are producing lumpfish.

I think they are very much in the position we’re in. What came out of the discussions from Olav Breck [of Marine Harvest], who came to talk to us, was this push to make sure we stay in contact and that we don’t try to reinvent the wheel.

We must ensure that all research activities are passed between us.

How many cleaner fish hatcheries are there in the UK? We have a moving field with the number of hatcheries we have because everyone is continuing to look at facilities. So we have Ardtoe, Machrihanish and Otter Ferry, which were the three key places. Benchmark are also looking for other facilities.

And there’s activity now south of the border in Weymouth and in Swansea – it’s mainly lumpfish in the south.

Some are still not confirmed. We’ve got five that are actively working or producing fish at the moment but there’s likely to be between two and four coming on line in the next year or two.

That has been one of the obstacles – when we started we did have a fairly limited number of places where cleaner fish could be produced.

This led to places like Weymouth and Swansea

being approached and getting involved.

Now people are also looking at some of the facilities that were used a number of years ago for marine fish production or smaller scale research centres – including a few places on Shetland.

There are other possibilities that came out in the meeting.

There was a discussion about needing more space and we’re going to need to scale up production, and it’s good practice to not have all your eggs in one basket, to be producing at a number of different facilities.

Are all the salmon companies prepared to invest in this?

They are all looking at investing in cleaner fish, some investing quite heavily, depending on what size of company they are.

Also there are companies such as Otter Ferry and Benchmark investing resources themselves in producing or building up a hatchery because

there’s going to be long term benefit for them as well.

When is the next cleaner fish conference?

Coming out of the meeting, there was an appetite for holding this sort of event more frequently, perhaps every year. In future, we’d look at a larger venue to bring in more people, including the Norwegian industry.

The meeting brought together different researchers with different expertise. Ensuring that we’re using the research capacity in Scotland to its full potential is another important part of this bringing everybody together.

We are planning to organise two to three workshops this year as the research and technology develops. Topics will be determined as to what is most appropriate at that time and may include other aspects of sea lice management, such as barrier skirts, different filtration technologies, and snorkel cages. FF

Exchange of ideas Meeting hears latest production and research developments, writes Jim Treasurer

J

ohn Rea of Scottish Sea Farms opened the conference with a motivational talk emphasising that cleaner fish can work in controlling sea lice numbers and urging SSPO members to be committed in getting the technique to work.

The five UK cleaner fish hatcheries described their facilities and production. Dave Cockerill of Marine Harvest gave the history of the wrasse hatchery at Machrihanish, which had been jointly funded with SSF and the TSB until this year, and SAIC support had been received until 2018.

Production of ballan wrasse had increased from 2,000 fish in 2012 to 72,000 in 2014 and 400,000 weaned larvae this year.

Emphasis had been placed on three photoperiod stocks to enable egg production through the year.

Issues had been with water quality and temperature control and the unit

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Wrasse.indd 23

had to be converted to a recirculation system.

Alistair Barge described how Otter Ferry had become involved in wrasse rearing from 2010 and in lumpfish rearing this year in a joint project with Marine Harvest. Ballan wrasse production had been doubling every year in the last five years. Heating of the water had been a priority.

There was still a challenge in improving survival and first feeding.

Richard Prickett reported that the Native Marine

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Cleaner fish

Centre in Weymouth was first involved in collecting wrasse broodfish and in egg supply to other hatcheries but a new hatchery had been built this year. One million eggs had been sent to third parties and 275,000 fish of 12 grams had been reared.

Swansea University CSAR had been working with lumpfish for two years. Their facility comprised two recirculation units. Some 120 wild caught females had been stripped of eggs in 2015, over one million first feeders had been transferred to other sites for on-growing, and 160,000 fish had been grown on to 10 grams.

Ben Perry completed the presentations on behalf of Benchmark, with a history of ballan wrasse rearing and the compilation of a manual through the ECOFISH project at Ardtoe.

Hatcheries were being opened at Aultbea and in Shetland. Rearing of lumpfish would be carried out in conjunction with egg supply from Stofnfiskur in Iceland.

The overall requirement of cleaner fish in Scotland was estimated at around five million fish.

Ronnie Hawkins of Marine Harvest and Chris Hempleman of Scottish Sea Farms gave examples of lice control using wrasse and also with stocking of lumpfish at an eight per cent level.

Adam Rainsden of Greig Seafood described the deployment of lumpfish in Shetland. Matthew Zietz described trials with wild caught wrasse with Wester Ross Salmon and gave experiences with the stocking and deployment of wrasse and lumpfish on salmon farms.

Loch Duart had generally been successful with wrasse, with no need to use medicinal treatments or there was a reduction in the number of treatments.

In the afternoon, David Cockerill reviewed health issues with cleaner

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Wrasse.indd 24

Top: The SSPO’s technical executive Jamie Smith.

Above: Cleaner fish.

Opposite page: Sea lice is the number one challenge.

fish with a focus on AGD and atypical furunculosis and Vibrio after transfer to sea pens.

Tim Wallis of Ridgeway outlined the main pathogenic strains of bacteria that had been identified from wrasse and lumpfish. Autogenous vaccines were being manufactured and should increase protection against bacterial disease.

Olav Breck of Marine Harvest gave an update on cleaner fish use in Norway. Each year, 300 million smolts would be stocked in Norway, so the ideal requirements would be to stock 45 million cleaner fish per year.

In 2014, some 14.5 million cleaner fish had been stocked, of which four million were farmed. It was predicted that the numbers of cleaner fish used in 2016 would be in excess of 20 million.

In a salmon production cycle, the aim was to stock eight per cent wrasse and seven per cent lumpfish. Emphasis was being placed on improving survival in the pens and optimising the use of cleaner fish.

Herve Migaud of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture completed the day with a round-up of cleaner fish research in the UK. The TSB project through MH and SSF had funded wrasse research in the last three years and this was now

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Exchange of ideas

The general feeling “from delegates was

considerable enthusiasm and interest

”

being followed by the support from SAIC. Two further SAIC projects would examine wrasse vaccination and also the welfare of cleaner fish. Research had been carried out on broodstock performance of wrasse, on sex differentiation, and on population genetics and genomics, on hatchery protocols, and on behaviour using an acoustic tagging system (see page 26).

Looking to the future, there would be further collaboration between the SSPO members and the research community in improving the survival of cleaner fish in pens and in enhancing the efficacy of the technique.

The general feeling from delegates was considerable enthusiasm and interest in the use of cleaner fish. FF Jim Treasurer is research director at Ardtoe Marine Research Facility

“Your search begins by removing the water with Fishers Side Scan Sonars”

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Cleaner fish – Stirling

Watching the stocks Monitoring provides insight into species’ behaviour within salmon net pens

BY BENJAMIN ZERAFA, HERVE MIGAUD, ERIC LECLERCQ

T

he European salmon industry is committed to continually apply greener, safer and more efficient production methods and disease control strategies.

In recent years, cleaner fish have emerged across the industry as a strategic component to the sustainable control of the potentially devastating salmon sea lice.

Many challenges have been rapidly overcome to achieve the current level of biological sea lice control. However, bottlenecks remain to optimise the reliability of this strategy across salmon sites and production cycles and secure the long-term application and global benefits of the method.

Key to the continual improvement of husbandry practices in any farming system is the visual observation of the livestock. A lot can be learned through observation on stock normal behaviour, natural rhythms, requirements and sub-optimal conditions.

These can lead to informed decisions on best husbandry practices. Monitoring of cleaner fish deployed at low densities within commercial Atlantic salmon net pens is inevitably restricted and remains largely anecdotal.

In this study, an acoustic telemetry system allowing fine-scale tracking of individual specimens at frequent intervals was used to better understand swimming activity of cleaner fish deployed.

The study was performed from March 24 to June 1, 2015, at a Scottish salmon sea site under full commercial management.

Two 25m square pens, 20m depth, were stocked with 2 kg Atlantic salmon and either wild ballan wrasse or farmed lumpfish previously deployed in summer 2014, hence fully acclimatised.

Cleaner fish shelters were provided at 5 to

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Research.indd 26

10 m depth. The sea lice count remained below trigger level and no therapeutic treatments were applied over the period.

Water temperature rose from 7.2 to 9.1 deg C and salinity was around 27 ppt. A 3D tracking system (Hydroacoustic TechnologyInc) was used, including acoustic tags emitting at a set periodicity providing a unique fish ID and an array of hydrophones for positioning by triangulation.

Ballan wrasse (n=9) and lumpfish (n=9) were surgically implanted with acoustic tags pinging every six to 10 seconds, returned to their original pen and tracked. Control tags were also deployed at known locations within the pens to validate the accuracy of the acoustic system.

More than 90 per cent of emitted signals were positioned by the system. The accuracy of the acoustic positions averaged 0.6 m across the three dimensions of all control tags and was below 1m in 93 per cent of the cases.

Results showed strong species specific behaviour in the pens. Lumpfish spent 80 per cent of their time in the top 10m of the pen during both day and night, compared to 15 and 30 per cent respectively for ballan wrasse.

The daily mean depth of farmed lumpfish averaged 6.8m, was consistent over April and May and did not differ between day and night.

Lumpfish made frequent, steep and short-term vertical migration to deeper depths, while generally cruising across all four sides of the net.

In comparison, wild wrasse displayed lower horizontal spread and

Above: Farmed lumpsucker and wild ballan wrasse deployed to salmon sea pen. Below and opposite page: Example of 3D track, top-view and depth profile of an individual ballan wrasse (l) and lumpfish (r) over 48h

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Watching the stocks

This knowledge will “enhance the reliability

and efficiency of this new biological control

”

vertical amplitude, therefore covering a lower volume area. They were located at 15m depth average, and progressively rose up with time and water temperature.

The swimming speed of lumpfish during the day but not at night increased with raising water temperature, along with a reduced use of shelters.

Together, these behavioural patterns suggest increasing delousing activity with raising temperature for both species.

Of interest, a third of the wrasse consistently migrated to shallower depth at night. This may have been driven by well documented day-night variations in the vertical distribution of salmon, which highlights the potential for overnight creel re-capture at shallower depth to minimise swim bladder over-inflation.

Lumpfish spent 50 per cent of their night time but 35 per cent of their day time in shelters, while ballan wrasse seldom used the shelters provided. This could have practical implications in controlling lumpfish position in close proximity to salmon.

In addition, the mean swimming speed of ballan wrasse was 30 per cent slower than that of lumpfish, which was not expected based on the species’ body morphology.

Finally, the swimming speed of lumpfish increased by 33 per cent and their mean depth decreased in response to the presence of continuous artificial light, which had no apparent effects on ballan wrasse.

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Research.indd 27

Artificial light altered lumpfish behaviour and its impact on delousing potency should therefore be considered.

Tidal water flow and feeding of the salmon stock had no apparent effect on the swimming speed, depth distribution and pen habitat usage of both species.

The 3D tracking system performed extremely well given that it was tested for the first time in such challenging farm conditions, including salmon densities, tidal flow, and salinity variations, as well as noise from seal scarers and boats.

The methodology provides an effective tool for monitoring cleaner fish behaviour according to species, origins, history and seasonal, environmental and stocking conditions.

A better understanding of cleaner fish swimming activity on farms will provide information on the overall welfare of the stocks and their efficiency at delousing salmon. This knowledge will lead to improved cleaner fish stocking strategies and husbandry practices, and enhance the reliability and efficiency of this new biological control.

The project was funded by Sainsbury’s, the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre and Marine Harvest (Scotland).

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: ‘The development of novel methods for the control of sea lice on farmed salmon are fundamental to the future sustainability of the industry.’

Eric Leclercq, Benjamin Zerafa and Herve Migaud, Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture FF

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Investment – NERC

Funding

the future Major science awards to encourage collaboration between researchers and industry

F

ISH farming projects will be awarded £6 million over five years in an initiative launched in December by the UK research funding agency NERC (the Natural Environment Research Council).

The UK Aquaculture Initiative, funded by NERC and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), will support research and innovation, and encourage researchers and the UK aquaculture industry to work together.

Cefas, Marine Scotland Science, the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland will co-fund the initiative, and a consortium of leading companies, including Marine Harvest, EWOS and Zoetis, will be closely involved.

The funds will be available to support innovative projects that will help solve the challenges facing the industry, including efficiency, productivity and sustainability.

The initiative will invest in collaborative, pre-competitive, relevant research, and will break down barriers between academia and industry by highlighting the benefits of collaboration, such as access to data, skills, facilities and cutting edge research.

Above: Duncan Wingham

Left: Research will help the industry become more sustainable

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At a workshop in London on December 8, hosted by NERC and BBSRC, researchers in the aquaculture industry presented their proposals for funding, while 21 current grant holders gave flash presentations of their work to date.

One of the main aims of the ‘Unlocking Aquaculture Innovation through Collaboration’ event, though, was to build relationships between the different sections of the growing aquaculture research community.

Professor Duncan Wingham, NERC chief executive, said: ‘Our investment in this vital part of the UK food industry is needed to promote collaborative working between researchers and the seafood industry to ensure it is sustainable.

‘The initiative will demonstrate how the research community can underpin the long-term needs of industry through interdisciplinary research, research translation and the provision of training.’

Robyn Thomas of NERC said: ‘It’s your money and our responsibility is to invest it in science and innovation. At the heart of that is relying on stakeholder inputs to make sure we invest in the best way possible.

‘That’s part of what today is about, understanding where you’re coming from…to inform us of the best way to invest.’

Charlotte Maddocks, aquaculture manager at Tesco and a speaker at the London workshop, said: ‘This is a fantastic initiative which encourages innovation and collaboration between retailers, researchers and industry experts across British aquaculture, which is key to the success of providing the best possible quality and sustainable seafood for customers.

‘At the retail level, we have to innovate to

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Funding the future

This is key to the “ success of providing the

best possible quality and sustainable seafood for customers

”

continuously attract people to the fish category, to get people to buy.’

The scheme will include two components: networks, and a portfolio of collaborative research and innovation projects.

NERC and BBSRC will invite proposals for two networks in finfish and in shellfish. Network proposals, led by one or two academic principal investigators, will be assessed through peer-review.

Each network will have an advisory panel made up of industry and academics to ensure the network fulfils the needs of both communities.

The networks will be responsible for developing a research and innovation strategy which will inform a programme of funding for collaborative research.

NERC and BBSRC will also invest in innovation projects that use or translate existing NERC and BBSRC-remit data and knowledge into tools, technologies and approaches to meet a specific aquaculture industry need or issue.

The new initiative builds on a capacity building aquaculture call in October 2014, which aimed to deliver bioscience and environmental research projects in seven priority areas, as well as expanding the uptake and development of novel tools, methods and technologies.

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At the London workshop, grant holders from the BBSRC/NERC Sustainable Aquaculture capacity building call in 2014 gave flash presentations of their research to date.

One of the aims of this call was to draw in researchers new to aquaculture and 41 out of the 109 researchers involved in making applications were from outside the industry.

Among the projects now underway from the 2014 grant holders was an investigation into gut health and immune function by Samuel Martin of Aberdeen University; predicting benthic chemistry around marine fish farms, undertaken by Kenny Black of the Scottish Association of Marine Science (who was also one of the keynote speakers at the London workshop); and a study by Chris Secombes, of Aberdeen, into the development of a mucosal adjuvant for fish vaccination.

Later, representatives from Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture, Glasgow, Herriot Watt, Swansea, Plymouth, Cefas, and Marine Scotland were among the delegates who gave flash presentations of their research.

Monica Betancor of Stirling talked about her

work with sustainable aquafeeds using oils derived from GM oilseed crops; and Johnathan Napier of Rothamsted Research mentioned his related work in GM camelina field trials.

Meanwhile, Rob Raynard of Marine Scotland Science outlined his organisation’s priorities, including sea lice control and management; Andrew Davie of Stirling discussed the domestication of new species such as cleaner fish; Frances Murray, also of Stirling, gave a brief insight into his work with small holder aquaculture systems in Asia and Africa; and George Hide of Sparsholt College drew attention to his organisation’s ‘unparalleled facilities’ for collaborative research.

This spring, BBSRC and NERC will announce the recipients of £1 million of funding for innovation projects. FF

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Comment

BY DR MARTIN JAFFA

Has ‘demarketing’ harmed farms?

Canadian researcher who unearthed environmental campaign against salmon set to look at Norway’s industry

L

ast December, a link appeared on a wellknown web page, headlined ‘Eight kinds of cancer-triggering foods that you should avoid’.

Number one in the list was farmed salmon.

It stated that ‘salmon are raised in a really crowded environment and thus they have 30 times more sea lice than their wild counterparts. Also, farmed salmon is infamous for the chemicals, antibiotics, pesticides and other cancer causing dioxins in it’.

What stood out of these absurd claims was the inclusion of the word ‘infamous’. Farmed salmon is known as a value-for money, tasty and healthy food. It seems odd that it is infamous for anything, but ten years ago, farmed salmon did gain a reputation in some circles for the ludicrous claims that appeared again last month.

However, these claims were not backed by scientific evidence but rather by US dollars.

Environmental groups were actually being paid millions of dollars in secret to tarnish the reputation of farmed salmon and sway consumers, especially in the US, to avoid it at all costs.

This covertly funded campaign would have remained unknown except for the work of independent Canadian researcher Vivian Krause, who questioned some of the scientific claims being made and, after digging around, found direct evidence of the huge funding campaign against farmed salmon.

Krause has now been asked to speak at the forthcoming Seafood Days conference in Norway (in Hell, near Trondheim, from January 1920) to describe her work uncovering what has become known as the ‘demarketing’ of farmed salmon and to consider whether Norwegian

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Martin Jaffa - Comment.indd 30

If it was unsafe to eat, “why was it so widely

available throughout the retail sector?

”

salmon is subject to a similar campaign today.

Krause’s voyage of discovery began in 2005 when the David Suzuki Foundation told the press that a study had found that salmon farming caused sea lice levels to rocket 30,000 times higher than natural, ‘commonly killing over 80 per cent of returning pink salmon’.

That press release generated more than 500 different news stories but the fact that the claims were ‘all correlative’ so that there was no supporting evidence was not reported.

When she started to dig deeper into this research, Krause uncovered a grant document showing that the US Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation had donated $560,000 to SeaWeb for an anti-salmon farming campaign, covering both science and media.

The purpose of the campaign was to shift consumer and retailer demand away from farmed salmon, and this donation was just the tip of the iceberg.

Why the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation would want to persuade consumers to avoid

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12/01/2016 15:54:22

Has ‘demarketing’ harmed farms?

Above: Grilled salmon

eating farmed salmon is unclear, especially as their Oceans and Seafood Market Initiative now aims to foster responsible aquaculture.

Ten years ago, though, there was a belief among some of the charitable foundations that imports of farmed salmon would destroy the demand for US wild salmon, as well as the American way of life.

Their aim was to protect the US wild salmon industry but their method was extremely underhand. Millions of dollars were spent on campaigns such as ‘Farmed and Dangerous’, which implied that farmed salmon was unsafe to eat.

Ultimately, these campaigns failed because the many unsubstantiated claims were ignored by the public. Clearly, if it was unsafe to eat, why was it so widely available throughout the retail sector? Farmed salmon is now extremely popular with US consumers yet the wild salmon industry has not suffered from the availability of imported farmed salmon.

Sadly, while all memory of these campaigns has disappeared from public awareness, it remains strong within some parts of the environmental sector. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch programme, which has been funded by the Packard Foundation, still recommends that farmed salmon is to be avoided, while wild US salmon is their ‘Best Choice’.

Fortunately, most consumers continue to ignore their advice. The Packard Foundation has been one of the most significant funders of campaigns to demarket farmed salmon.

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Martin Jaffa - Comment.indd 31

Does the salmon farming industry continue to suffer from demarketing campaigns? Krause is expected to expand on this theme during her presentation.

Her investigations into demarketing of farmed salmon were wound down some years ago as the publicity she generated prompted most charitable foundations to put an end to their support of anti-farmed salmon campaigns.

She has since turned her attention to investigating funding of Tar Sands and the campaign against Alberta Oil. It seems that farmed salmon is not the only subject of multi-million dollar misinformation campaigns, although clearly the motivations are very different.

The salmon farming industry remains grateful to Krause for exposing this determined effort to sway the market away from farmed salmon.

Dr Martin Jaffa is the founder of marketing company Callander McDowell and has been involved in the aquaculture industry for more than 40 years. Read his weekly blog, reLAKSation, at www.callandermcdowell.co.uk FF

31

12/01/2016 15:54:42

Feed – Introduction

Investment and

innovation

From Marine Harvest’s new factory to the ongoing search for alternative sources of protein, the focus is on feed

T

he recent decision by Marine Harvest to build a feed factory in Scotland demonstrates the importance of nutrition in any aquaculture operation.

Marine Harvest expanded into fish feed with its first factory opening at Bjugn in Norway in 2014. The factory has proven to be a success over the past 18 months and now the company wants to explore integration further.

It plans to build an £80 million feed factory on a site yet to be decided on the west coast of Scotland, with a total capacity to begin with of around 170,000 tonnes of feed.

The construction phase is planned to commence in 2017 and expected completion will be in the first half of 2018.

All existing external feed supply contracts in Scotland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands expire during the first half of 2018.

The feed plant, which is subject to acquiring land, obtaining relevant permissions and consents, will be positioned ‘to deliver feed to our operations in Scotland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands’, said the company in December, although ‘this may change or develop over time’.

Existing management within Marine Harvest Fish Feed will provide support to the build-up of the new operational management and Ben Hadfield, who is COO of MHG’s Feed Division, has replaced Alan Sutherland

Left: Feed is the biggest operational cost in fish farming

as managing director in Scotland and will have overall responsibility for MHS feed and farming.

The company said that the Norwegian feed facility covers approximately 80 per cent of its Norwegian feed requirements.

‘Operational excellence and effective transportation and logistics have been key contributors to the good results,’ said the group.

‘We see, however, that third party European feed purchases remain significant, within Scotland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands as salmon farming centres, where we today are 100 per cent supplied by external feed companies.

‘A second feed factory is therefore in line with the strategy of being a fully integrated protein company. After careful consideration, Scotland is viewed as the best alternative due to its ability to fully serve our internal feed requirements in a cost effective manner.’

The range of feed types at the Scottish facility will be broadened to include starter feed for freshwater and organic feed for Marine Harvest’s Irish operations.

The investment will be phased over the years 2016-2018, with approximately 95 per cent of the capital expenditure falling within 20172018.

The investment size reflects that the product range will be broadened. The investment is expected to yield good results, with a capital return target in the range of 15 per cent.

Over the following pages, we look at other feed related developments, including the search for alternative sources of protein, studies into the digestive systems of fish, and a breakthrough in copepod production. FF

fully serve our internal “Scotlandfeedwillrequirements ” 32

Feed - Intro.indd 32

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12/01/2016 15:50:37

Feed

New kind of nutrition

Californian company to explore production of novel aqua feed at UK research centre place conventional fishmeal.

Studies have confirmed the nutritional value of the feed, based on criteria such as growth performance and animal health.

Calysta said FeedKind Aqua, which it is marketing to the global salmon farming industry, provides the aquaculture industry with the opportunity to further improve its sustainability as it grows to meet increasing global demand for fish protein.

By replacing fishmeal with a nutritious naturally occurring protein, the industry can reduce its impact on the environment and on wild fisheries, while offering consumers a more sustainable product.

Alan Shaw, Calysta president and CEO, said: ‘The eRGF grant is a major vote of confidence for us from the UK government.

‘After looking at potential sites around Europe, we look forward to building Calysta’s first plant in Teesside.’

Calysta has already received about £1.4 million from Dutch investment fund Aqua-Spark, which focuses exclusively on sustainable aquaculture initiatives with a view to bringing them to market.

‘We chose Calysta because it offers a perfect, sustainable, healthy replacement for fishmeal. And Calysta will do so at a scale that will have a real impact throughout the industry,’ said Aqua-Spark’s Mike Velings last year. FF

CONTINUOUS CHANGE AT CARGILL

A

n American biotech company that has pioneered a novel aqua feed is to open a research facility in the UK. California based Calysta has been given a conditional grant of £2.8 million from the British government to open the UK’s largest biotechnology plant in Teesside.

Located at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), Calysta will develop the production process for FeedKind protein, a new fish feed ingredient to reduce the aquaculture industry’s use of fishmeal.

FeedKind protein is a natural, safe, non-GMO sustainable fish feed ingredient, said the company, and it has been approved for sale in the European Union.

Calysta is investing £30 million over ten years in the first phase of its plan to commercialise FeedKind and develop the technology for other applications. The grant – an Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) award – will contribute to the total.

The company will secure 30 jobs in CPI and Calysta, along with indirect jobs in construction and the wider supply chain, it said, announcing its UK expansion on January 12.

FeedKind has been developed using a technology that uses a naturally occurring microbe to convert methane gas into a substitute for fishmeal, a process similar to the production of yeast-extract sandwich spreads.

This potentially game changing protein based fish food solution is now being combined with feed at some Norwegian salmon farms to re-

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Feed - Intro.indd 33

Above: Alan Shaw

This is a “ major vote of

confidence from the UK government

”

FOLLOWING the acquisition of EWOS by Cargill in 2015, Einar Wathne, president of Cargill Aqua Nutrition, said he is looking forward to an exciting and challenging year ahead.

The conclusion of the transaction in October 2015 created the world’s largest aquaculture nutrition company.

Positive about the year ahead, Wathne said: ‘In 2016, our main focus will be completing the integration with Cargill and leveraging all the best aspects of each business to create the global leader in aquaculture innovation.

‘Cargill Aqua Nutrition will be in continuous change and development in 2016,’ said Wathne. ‘We will establish new leadership, new operating models, allocate talents where most needed, establish new routines, standards and working methods.

‘This change management will be prevalent for all employees, and we all believe change for the better.’

Elaborating on where EWOS will fit within the well established Cargill group, Wathne said: ‘Cargill is the company we work for and our organisational brand, and EWOS will remain the go-to-market brand that our customers

experience. The service, products and quality that our customers know from EWOS will remain the same as before.

‘We will continue to work towards gaining new strategies and tools to combat sea lice and diseases. This, together with good industry collaboration and authority regulation, is needed in order to manage the bio-security risks.’

The new EWOS Fish Health Centre in Chile, a state of the art research facility, will open in spring this year, and this major investment in fish health will benefit the industry as a whole.

‘The investment demonstrates our commitment to R&D and to shows that we, as part of Cargill, will continue to provide long-term solutions to combat the industry’s challenges,’ said Wathne. ‘We will continue to invest in research and the next step will be a Centre of Excellence in Asia.’

•RAPID results: page 46

Above: Einar Wathne

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12/01/2016 16:32:19

Feed – Nutriad

2/6 pp

At Nutriad, a continuous programme of empiric screening for important aquaculture species aims at identifying promising compounds for application in aquaculture (Fig 1).

Our research has mainly focused on compounds which are heat-stable in order to facilitate application under practical processing conditions for aquafeed.

BY DR PETER COUTTEAU

Get more for less

In omnivorous fish such as tilapia and catfish, digestive aids have shown interesting results to improve nutrient utilisation from cheap ingredients and improve the economics of farming and filet processing.

Reducing feed cost in tilapia through digestive and metabolic enhancement For carnivorous fish such as marine fish and trout, digestibility enhancers adjust for

A

decreased digestibility, particularly ofpro-dietary fat and energy, for given feeds Increasing feedfish costs have therefore accelquaculture is the fastest growing industry producing animal erated a search for alternative formulations to tein, with an average annual growth rate of 10 per cent during the Below - Fig 1: Screening of containing low levels of fishmeal and high levels of vegetable proteins. improve the cost efficiency of feeding under 1980s and 1990s. For the decade from 2012 to 2022, aquaculture

is forecast to grow between 29 and 50 per cent (FAO 2014).

Strong fluctuations of feed ingredient prices in combination with low market prices for farmed products have repeatedly challenged the profitability of aquaculture, including the production of shrimp, marine fish, trout and pangasius.

34

synergistic blends of digestibility enhancers at lab scale comparing product efficacy and cost-efficiency for each fish species (Nutriad internal data).

various scenarios of ingredient cost and availability.

Apart from optimising nutritional inputs and ingredient selection, so far aquaculture nutritionists have devoted little attention to the optimal functioning of the digestive system of fish and shrimp.

In the livestock industry, combined research efforts from producers, feed manufacturers, feed additive suppliers, and private/academic research entities have resulted in a vast knowledge base and a wide range of additives to alleviate increased cost of feed formulations for poultry and pigs.

But with the digestive physiology and nutritional requirements of fish and shrimp, species-specific feed additives need to be developed.

Here we look at the screening for optimal performance and cost-efficiency of digestibility enhancers in tilapia.

Potential products for application in fish include botanical extracts and phytobiotic compounds, short and medium chain fatty acids, organic acids, enzymes, and natural emulsifiers.

However, it is difficult to predict the functionality of many of these products for a wide range of fish species, covering carnivorous/omnivorous/herbivorous feeding habits, marine/ freshwater habitats, cold/tropical climates, and extremely different feed formulations.

At Nutriad, a continuous programme of empiric screening for important aquaculture species aims at identifying promising compounds for application in aquaculture (Fig 1).

Our research has mainly focused on compounds which are heat-stable in order to facilitate application under practical processing conditions for aquafeed.

In omnivorous fish such as tilapia and catfish,

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

Fig 1: Screening of synergistic blends of digestibility enhancers at lab scale comparing product efficacy and cost-efficiency for each fish species (Nutriad internal data).

Nutriad.indd 34 12/01/2016 15:44:48 Data show results for growth (SGR, per cent/per day) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) relative to

Get more for less

formulations “areCurrent mainly focused on

nutritional specifications and ingredient choice

”

recommended for field verification. The supplementation of 1.5 kg per MT of feed of a digestive aid yielded significantly better FCR (-5 per cent), Above: Field evaluation growth (+4 per cent) and protein efficiency ratio (+4 per cent; Table 1), of feed additives in and increasing the supplementation from 1.5 kg to 3 kg per MT of feed further improved these efficacy in juvenile Nile tilapia. The decreased vis- tilapia grown in cages.

Table 1: Dose-response cerasomatic and hepatosomatic indexes and increased protein efficiency effect for a digestive ratio indicated that more dietary energy/protein is released by the use of aid in Nile tilapia (trial the digestive enhancer. duration: eight weeks; 3/6 pp Traditionally, dietary non-protein energy sources, such as carbohydrate average (n=3) ± stdev, or lipid have been demonstrated to spare the protein for tilapia. Howevdifferent letters in er, the common carbohydrate sources also show low digestibility due to the same row denote significant differences at the high fibre content, whereas high lipid levels tend to cause fatty fish.

Demonstration efficacy under lab conditions p≤0.05; Ceulemans et Therefore, feed additives which can improve nutrient utilisation have a Dose-response trials under lab conditions al, 2009). potential to promote protein sparing tilapia and reduce feed cost provide data to explore theeffect most cost-efTableuseful 1: Dose-response for a digestive aid in Nile tilapia (trialinduration: eight the weeks; average per kg of fish and/or filet produced. ficient dosage of novel feed additives to be (n=3) ± stdev, different letters in the same row denote significant differences at p≤0.05; Ceulemans digestive aids have shown interesting results to improve nutrient utilisation from cheap ingredients and improve the economics of farming and filet processing.

For carnivorous fish such as marine fish and trout, digestibility enhancers adjust for decreased digestibility, particularly of dietary fat and energy, for fish given feeds containing low levels of fishmeal and high levels of vegetable proteins.

et al, 2009).

Survival (%) initial weight (g) final weight (g) SGR (%/day) Feed Intake (g/ind) Feed Conversion Ratio Protein Efficiency Ratio Hepatosomatic Index (%) Viscerasomatic Index (%)

CONTROL 100 ± 0 9.17 ± 0.04 41.84 ± 0.83 a 2.71 ± 0.03 37.86 ± 0.65 a 1.16 ± 0.01 a 2.75 ± 0.03 1.60 ± 0.15 a 8.45 ± 0.09

AQUAGEST® OMF 1.5 kg/MT feed 100 ± 0 9.15 ± 0.13 44.32 ± 1.25 ab 2.82 ± 0.03 38.83 ± 1.18 b 1.10 ± 0.01 ab 2.86 ± 0.02 1.48 ± 0.11 b 7.79 ± 0.11

% vs control

+4.1% -5.2% +4.0% -7.5% -7.8%

AQUAGEST® OMF 3 kg/MT feed 100 ± 0 8.93 ± 0.21 44.3 ± 1.99 b 2.86 ± 0.08 38.3 ± 1.15 b 1.08 ± 0.03 b 2.92 ± 0.1 1.43 ± 0.01 a 8.41 ± 0.13

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Traditionally, dietary non-protein energy sources, such as carbohydrate or lipid have been demonstrated to spare the protein for tilapia. However, the common carbohydrate sources Nutriad.indd 35 show low digestibility due to the high fibre content, whereas high lipid levels tend to also

% of control

+5.5% -6.9% +6.2% -10.6% -0.5% 35

12/01/2016 15:45:05

and plasma triglycerides, but enhanced G6PDH activity, which indicated effects on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism (Fig 2).

The metabolic effects can explain the release of non-protein energy, which in turn results

Feed – Nutriadsparing and more effective utilisation of protein for muscle growth. in protein

Economics under field conditions The optimal application of digestive/metabolic enhancers requires field evaluations to provide information on optimal dosage at different life stages of the fish, possible interactions with feed quality and their effects and processing qualities of the fish.

Sampaio-Gonçalves et al (2012) evaluated the effect of the dosage and feed quality on the efficacy of a digestibility enhancer for tilapia during a production cycle in cages in Brazil.

The best results were obtained by supplementing the control feed throughout the production cycle with 3 kg/MT of the feed additive, resulting in improved survival (+2.8 per cent), daily weight crude protein; protein reduction with 3(-6.4 kg/MT gain (+5 percompensated cent), feed conversion per AQUAGEST OMF and Wu, 2014) cent), fileting yield (+1.5 per cent), visceral fat deposition (-9.9 per cent), hepatosomatic index Fig 2: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) activity and plasma triglyceride level in tilapia under fed Economics field conditions (-22 per cent), and viscerosomatic index (-10.7 two feeds. CONTROL and LOPRO, respectively, 28 per cent and 26 per centand crudeplasma protein; triglyceride Figdiff 2.erent Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) activity level in per cent). protein on compensated with 3 kg/MT AQUAGEST OMFLOPRO, in LOPRO diet (LinThe and Wu, 2014) tilapiareducti fed two different feeds.

CONTROL and respectively, 28 per cent and 26digestive/metabolic per optimal application of enhancers Reducing thecent additive inclusion from 3 to 1.5 requires field provide information on optimal dosage at different life stages of the fish kg/MT from 350g fish onwards still resulted in ng benefi ts for growth, interactions with feedinteresti quality and their effectsfeed andconversion processing qualities and visceral fat but did not affect fileting yield.

Thealopti mal additi ve treatment Sampaio-Gonçalves et (2012) evaluated theimproved effect of the dosage an farm revenues by 17 perfor cent compared to the the efficacy of a digestibility enhancer tilapia during a production cy un-supplemented control group and showed a Brazil. return on investment (ROI) of 3.8:1 (Fig 3).

Reducing the additive inclusion to 1.5 kg/MT of The best results were obtained by supplementing the control feed thro feed once fish reach 350g still resulted in seven production cycle withper 3 cent kg/MT of the feed additive, resulting in improve improved revenues compared to the cent), daily weight gain (+5 per cent), feed conversion un-supplemented control group and a ROI of(-6.4 per cent), f per cent), visceral fat2.1:1. deposition (-9.9 per cent), hepatosomatic index ( viscerosomatic index The (-10.7 per feed cent). low cost performed significantly worse compared to the control feed in most Reducing the additive inclusion from 3 to 1.5 kg/MT from 350g fish onw parameters, parti cularly in terms of survival, feed conversion and fifeed leting yield.

The additiand on ofvisceral 2 in interesting benefits for growth, conversion fat but d kg/MT of the feed additive was only capable of yield. improving growth but the nutritional impact of the protein digestifarm bility and amino acid The optimal additivereducing treatment improved revenues by 17 per cent balancegroup in this feed affected the overall un-supplemented control andheavily showed a return on investment (R performance, particularly FCR and survival. resulted in 10 per cent reduced revenues Reducing the additiveThis inclusion to 1.5 kg/MT of feed once fish reach 35 compared to control and showed the importance Above: The mill where seven per cent improved revenues compared to the un-supplemented feeds were extruded. of maintaining the nutritional balance in the feed ROI 2.1:1.

Far left:of Feed bag. Left: in order to maximise the benefits of a digestibiliEvaluated for fileting ty enhancing concept. yield.

A study performed at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, demonstrated that tilapia fed two per cent less protein and supplemented with a digestive/metabolic enhancer, showed even better performance in terms of growth, FCR, PER, protein retention and fileting yield compared to control fish (Lin and Wu, 2014).

Furthermore, fish fed the enhanced low protein diet showed lower levels of visceral fat and plasma triglycerides, but enhanced G6PDH activity, which indicated effects on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism (Fig 2).

The metabolic effects can explain the release of non-protein energy, which in turn results in protein sparing and more effective utilisation of protein for muscle growth.

36

Nutriad.indd 36

Fig 3: Economic evaluation of different application strategies for a feed additive in tilapia farming. Data show change of farm revenues and return of investment, Fig Economic evaluationcontrol of different application strategies relati3: ve to the non-supplemented group. Treatment groups differ in for a feed additiv Data show ofvefarm revenues and(control returnfeed of investment, relative to the n inclusion of thechange feed additi and formulati on: AG3 + 3 kg/MT control Treatment groups inclusion offeed the+feed additive and for Aquagestgroup.

OMF throughout the producti ondiffer cycle), in AG3/1.5 (control 3 kg/MT till 350g; followed kg/MTAquagest till harvest),OMF LC/AG2throughout (low cost feedthe + 2 kg/MT). (control feed +by3 1.5 kg/MT production cycle), AG3

kg/MT till 350g; followed by 1.5 kg/MT till harvest), LC/AG2 (low cost feed + 2

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com The low cost feed performed significantly worse compared to the contr parameters, particularly in terms of survival, feed conversion and filetin addition of 2 kg/MT of the feed additive was only capable improving 12/01/2016 of 15:45:26

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Current aquafeed formulations are mainly focused on nutritional specifications and ingredient choice, whereas the optimal utilisation of the nutrients by the fish is rarely taken into account.

This research illustrated the need for specific product development, searching for digestive aids which are compatible with the digestive physiology of each fish species and type of feed formulation.

Peter Coutteau, Nutriad International, Belgium. Cited references can be obtained from the author. FF

Above and below right: Nutrient utilisation affects fileting yield in tilapia. Above right: Peter Coutteau (left) with Itamar Rocha, president of the Brazilian Shrimp Farming Association

PHARMAQ Ltd, Unit 15, Sandleheath Ind Est, Fordingbridge, SP6 1PA Tel: 01425 656081 www.pharmaq.com

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Nutriad.indd 37

37

12/01/2016 15:45:46

Feed – Ynsect

Beetle juice French insect company spreads its wings with high tech innovation

T

he French biotech company Ynsect has developed an insect based sustainable feed which has been tested, with exciting results, on rainbow trout.

Backed by international partners and a global team of researchers, Ynsect has combined natural ingredients with automated technology to be able to create its feed on an industrial scale.

Its high tech YnFarm platform is farming based on robotics and automation, which enables the production of large quantities of highly standardised ingredients.

Farming insects for the production of raw materials for the aqua feed industry is here to stay, says the company.

Ynsect’s protein meal (TMP-Y465) and oil (TMO-Y4) are made from the yellow mealworm beetle – called Tenebrio molitor. They are reared exclusively on plant based raw material approved for animal use (according to regulation EU183/2005).

Ynsect’s defatted meal, TMP-Y465, contains 92 per cent dry matter, at least 70 per cent crude protein and 13 per cent fatty acids and the ash content is quite low, at three per cent. The oil has a high content in oleic and linoleic acids.

A trial was run to replace 100 per cent of ordinary fishmeal by TMP-Y465 defatted insect meal in the diet of juvenile rainbow trout, with positive effects on the feed conversion ratio (FCR) and growth (see graphs 1 and 2).

The trial was undertaken by Sparos LDA of Portugal to evaluate the benefits of using TMP-Y465 and was tested using juvenile rainbow trout with an initial body weight (IBW) of five grams.

For the tests, four experimental diets were formulated: Y5.0, Y7.5, Y15 and Y25, in which fishmeal was replaced with Ynsect TMP-Y465 meal at 20, 30, 60 and 100 per cent respectively.

These diets were compared with a control diet containing 25 per cent super prime fishmeal from Peru.

The experiment was run three times for all the diets. The fish were fed to apparent satiety and each trial was conducted over a 90-day period.

The survival rate of the fish was 100 per cent in all treatments.

All diets with TMP-Y465 showed significant improvement of the growth rate and feed con-

38

Ynsect - Feed.indd 38

version rate values in comparison with the control group.

The defatted insect meal could effectively replace 100 per cent of fishmeal and be a good alternative to other proteins in the diet of juvenile rainbow trout, with positive effects on the overall growth performance.

Fish fed with diet Y25 (100 per cent fishmeal replacement) showed a significant increase of their initial body weight after just 28 days.

After 90 days, the fish had gained approximately 30 per cent more body weight compared with the final body weight of fish fed with a fishmeal diet (see graph 1).

Large “insect

production sites will pop up in different parts of the world in the near future

GRAPH 1 Finger line rainbow trout growth experiments ran over 90 days, control in white bars having 25% fishmeal super prime Peru. Graded substitution with insect meal (TMP-Y465), showed over 30% better growth GRAPH 1: Finger line rainbow trout growth experiments ran over 90 days, control at 100% fish meal substitution. in white bars having 25% fishmeal super prime Peru. Graded substitution with insect meal (TMP-Y465), showed overgrowth 30% bett er growth ran at 100% fishmeal GRAPH 1 Finger line rainbow trout experiments over 90 days, substituti control inon. white bars having 25% fishmeal super prime Peru. Graded substitution with insect meal (TMP-Y465), showed over 30% better growth at 100% fish meal substitution.

”

GRAPH A graded substitution of fi the fish meal insect GRAPH 2: A 2graded substi tution of the shmeal with with insect meal.meal.

Shows that Shows thatreduces TMP-Y465 reduces the FCR inwith the control group shown in TMP-Y465 the FCR in comparison comparison white bars. with the control group shown in white bars.

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GRAPH 2 A graded substitution of the fish meal with insect meal.

Shows that TMP-Y465 reduces the FCR in comparison with the control group shown in white bars.

12/01/2016 16:28:37

Beetle juice

Overall growth performance can be considered very satisfactory and within the higher range for juvenile rainbow trout, with SGR (sustainable growth rate) values for the total duration of the trial varying between 2.4 and 2.7 per cent per day.

However, the more TMP-Y465 there was in the diet, the better the fish growth. In the best performing treatments, fish showed an 11-fold increase of their initial body weight.

Feed conversion ratio among the treatments varied between 0.79 and 0.93, suggesting a good nutritional adequacy of the feeds and good feeding practices.

Protein, phosphorus and energy retention was enhanced in trout fed diets comprising the defatted TMP-Y465 insect meal compared to the control feed, and the graded incorporation levels of TMP-Y465 showed no difference on the trout’s body composition.

Ynsect is currently building its first fully automated factory in the town of Dole, near the Swiss border, with the construction works commencing Above: The mealworm in an empty field in the summer of 2015. beetle. Inset: Beetle The work is progressing very well, said the comlarvae. Right: The new facility, pictured on pany, and the facility will be in full production this January 2, is progressing summer. well The new production capacity will address the increased need to do further fish trials after showing that TMP-Y465 is a sustainable source of high quality proteins for salmonid growth.

In addition, there will be growth trials on fish species other than trout.

Ynsect allocates a large part of its resources to research and development because it believes

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Ynsect - Feed.indd 39

innovation is crucial.

This emerging industry is supported by three renowned international investors: New Protein Capital (Singapore), Emertec Gestion and Demeter Partners (both French), and has some public sector support too.

The Ynsect team is composed of employees from countries as far as Madagascar, Argentina, Mexico and across Europe. There are currently 37 employees but this will expand when the new plant becomes operational, and Ynsect explores growth opportunities in other parts of Europe and the world.

Ynsect believes that the results of its trials are only the tip of the iceberg and that large insect production sites will pop up in different parts of the world in the near future. FF

39

12/01/2016 15:42:23

Feed – Acartia

Micro algae.

AKVA group´s algae production.

AKVA group´s copepod production.

Copepod eggs.

Feeding pump.

Food first

Industrial copepod production will revolutionise aquaculture, claim pioneers

N

ew technology for the production of copepods on a commercial scale is expected to revolutionise the breeding of marine fish in aquaculture.

In December, a consortium of Danish industry and scientific interests launched Acartia, a copepod that can be produced in industrial proportions.

It is the culmination of a four-year DKK 15 million project – a partnership between Innovation Fund Denmark, AKVA Group Denmark, Agrotech, Roskilde University and Aqua Circle – and it promises to help fish farmers around the world rear a greater variety of marine species.

‘In the last three decades,’ said AKVA, ‘the aquaculture sector has dreamed about copepods. Now the dream has come true.’

The project has devised an integrated system of algae and copepod production, with a planned capacity of more than 100 million copepod eggs daily.

A large part of future global aquaculture growth will be based on the farming of marine species. All marine fish species produce eggs and the newly hatched, almost microscopic larvae require live feed.

Copepods are the larvae’s natural prey in the first stages of their lives but, until now, it has not been possible to mass produce copepods at a level which can meet the global demand.

By feeding marine fish larvae with copepods early in the larvae’s life, mortality is reduced by up to 80 per cent and increase in growth can be improved by about 30 per cent.

Bent Holm Nielsen, CEO of AKVA Group Denmark, said now that the Acartia trials, conducted at Roskilde and at AKVA (in Copenhagen), have proved copepod production is commercially viable, its potential is vast, for species such as cod, sea bass, barra-

40

Acartia - Feed .indd 40

mundi and tuna.

‘Today, some 95 per cent of all aquaculture is fresh water and there’s a good reason for that.

You can feed rotifers and artemia to fresh water fish when they are hatchlings. But marine fish larvae need to feed on copepods.

‘But the problem is those copepods are available in the oceans but they are so small you can’t just trawl for them or collect them. In order for these marine fry to take nutrition they have to get it from these copepods.

‘Copepod is a zooplankton. The one we’re using, Acartia tonsa, is the one Roskilde has identified as having the proper nutritional composition to be an all-round species and it also is one of the more robust copepods that we can use for industrial production.’

Roskilde University has been researching copepods nutrition, reproduction and growth for 20 years.

Holm Nielsen said: ‘Once marine fish hatch out of their eggs – that’s relatively easy- but then they starve because they don’t have Acartia available in aquaculture. They have been fed artemia and rotifers which is not their natural feed.

‘Their natural feed is basically nauplii – the copepod in its newly hatched form. Some newly hatched fish can only eat certain Acartia in the wild. Many of the copepods are too big – they physically will not fit through the size of their mouth.

‘There might be many copepods around but if they aren’t copepods of the right size then they can’t eat it.

“

We think demand should be more or less infinite because this will not be hard to sell

”

Clockwise from top: The stages of the Acartia production process; Bent Holm Nielsen

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Food first

ACARTIA FACTS

From eggs to copepods.

‘The beauty of this method is that we can produce the copepod eggs and we sell the eggs to our customers. Thankfully, the eggs readily hatch into these nauplii (very small copepods) and they can then grow into bigger and bigger copepods such that we can feed the copepods to the fish at exactly the right time in exactly the right amount.

‘The fish farmer buys the eggs then he hatches the eggs, then he waits for a certain amount of time until the copepod is the right size for his hatcheries.’

A copepod production facility has been developed by AKVA Group Denmark and the microalgae required for copepod production is produced in a plant developed by the private/ public research institution AgroTech.

The trade organisation Aqua Circle aims at disseminating knowledge about the production and use of live feed to the exporting Danish aquaculture sector. Copepod eggs can be exported worldwide.

Local fish producers can hatch the eggs and use the copepods for live feed for marine fish larvae. Both copepod eggs and know-how on the production of live fish have considerable export potential.

It is estimated that the global market for copepods will

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Acartia - Feed .indd 41

Copepods feed to marine fish larvae.

increase to about DKK 1.5 billion within 10 years.

‘We have the capability of producing a million eggs a day now but that will increase to 100 million eggs a day, hopefully much sooner than two years’ time,’ said Holm Nielsen.

‘We don’t know what the demand is. We think it should be more or less infinite because if what the scientific literature claims is true, this will not be hard to sell.

‘There are things we don’t know – it is known that if marine hatchlings are fed copepods they get to be more healthy, they get less pigmentation failures, they gain weight faster, all of this is known.

‘What we don’t know, and what we’re going to develop with our customers, is exactly how you feed this copepod to these specific species at what stage. There’s more work to be done but now we have the product to do it with.’

He said the most difficult part of the whole process is not growing the copepods but growing the food for the copepods, the algae.

Denmark is in the global forefront when it comes to knowledge and technologies within commercial fish farming, and the country has a strong tradition of cooperation between research institutions and industry.

But Holm Nielsen said: ‘We are looking much further afield than Norway and Denmark What we do for our bread and butter is to build RAS systemsthat’s our main business in AVKA Group in Denmark. We sell these systems worldwide.

‘But a lot of that RAS is in fresh water; we’re hoping to help this sector build its capabilities in marine species. From a commercial standpoint, they should be more attractive than fresh water species in many parts of the world.’

So are they going to customers and suggesting they explore new species?

‘Yes. We know there are projects underway to grow cod and halibut – with customers of ours – and they’ve expressed an interest in the product.’

He hopes Acartia will boost the development of these species.

‘That is the promise that science gives us. If we can feed those hatchlings then we should be able to grow those successfully. The possibilities are endless.’

And has there been any interest from fish farmers experimenting with tuna?

‘Absolutely – worldwide, two customers are specifically looking into this at the moment, one in the Middle East and one in Asia.

‘There is a lot of interest from the insiders in the business but the proof is in the pudding and I think we need to go out and get not just scientific papers that say this will work and this is how you feed it to your stock, but we actually get commercial farmers saying yes it is so.’ FF

After years of research and using different culturing methods for microalgae, AKVA developed a complete automatic algae bioreactor.

The backbone of the production system is based on a unique AKVA-connect that controls and monitors all processes. A PLC module is developed specifically for algae and copepod production.

Automation of the production processes decreases product prices for customers.

Acartia can also improve the growth of fish larvae and co-feeding with copepods can improve success.

Replacing 25 per cent of rotifers with copepods will significantly improve the growth of fish larvae and enhance their survival.

Feeding with Acartia is a very quick and simple process. After receiving the Acartia product from AKVA Group, farmers can store the eggs for later use by keeping them dark and refrigerated at 4 deg C. Or they can hatch their Acartia straight away and use them as live feed for their fish.

Acartia can be fed to a wide range of species. Among the most common aquaculture species that prefer copepods are cobia ornamental fish, barramundi, cod, shrimp, dorado, halibut, tuna, kingfish, sea bass and turbot.

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12/01/2016 15:37:39

Feed – Skretting

In the pink

Study reveals a pigmentation breakthrough in salmon smolts

BY ALAN BOURHILL

M

any Atlantic salmon producers around the world have extended the period that juveniles spend in the freshwater phase of growout, to help the fish achieve optimum growth, performance and health in sea pens.

Consequently, the reduced time that the smolts spend in seawater before harvest, allied to the generally faster growth rates being achieved in salmon production today, have contributed to a steady decline in the pigmentation period.

The pigment in salmonids that provides their prized pink colour is the carotenoid astaxanthin. Obtained naturally from plankton, algae and crustacean shells, as well as in nature-identical synthesised form, astaxanthin is also an antioxidant and a precursor to vitamin A. Natural sources of the pigment can also be obtained from yeast and bacteria. These naturally derived sources of astaxanthin make up the majority of pigment used in the UK market.

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While salmon in the seawater stage of production have always been given pigmented feeds, standard practice has been to not provide it in quantities sufficient for pigmentation before transfer into these sites.

Longstanding regulations relating to feed additives also stipulated that synthetic astaxanthin cannot be given to salmonids in the first six months of their life. While this rule was recently lifted in the EU*, it currently remains in place in Norway.

Whereas 10 to 15 years ago it was not unusual for salmon farmers to put 40g smolt into seawater sea pens, today the tendency is for the smolt being transferred to be considerably larger and much further along in the growth cycle.

‘With the sea production time now several months shorter, the salmon are missing out on significant pigmentation time ahead of harvest,’ said Leo Nankervis, team leader of salmonid nutrition at Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre (ARC).

‘Year-on-year, we have seen pigmentation decline in various markets, including Norway, Canada and Chile.’

To overcome this particular pigment challenge, and following extensive trials with astaxanthin, Skretting has formulated freshwater specific feeds containing astaxanthin, enabling pigmentation to begin prior to transfer.

‘These feeds give salmon farmers the opportunity to get a head start on the pigmentation process, which can give in excess of 0.5ppm extra

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In the pink

The “ reduced time

they are now spending in the seawater stage of growth has been challenging the pigmentation process

”

astaxanthin in the fillet by the time the fish have transferred,’ said Nankervis.

To align with the synthetic astaxanthin regulations, Skretting ARC’s freshwater trials, which were led by in-house researcher Guido Riesen, were conducted with salmon juveniles of approximately six months of age and were continued through the seawater phase of growth.

Findings established the lasting benefits of utilising higher levels of pigmentation in freshwater diet formulations.

‘The uptake utilisation of astaxanthin in freshwater was very similar to that in seawater. This was excellent news as it meant we could model for both stages,’ said Nankervis.

‘It was also about this time that the EU took away the six-month limit for pigmentation, making it commercially possible to use pigment throughout the freshwater stage, although, for the moment, the regulation still exists in Norway.’

Roar Sandvik, global product manager for freshwater and transfer feeds at Skretting, said the new findings will enable farmers to further optimise their pigment strategies, reduce lifecycle costs for pigment and help to ensure that large smolt populations with short seawater grow-out times will reach the market requirements for pigmentation.

‘The pigment astaxanthin is an essential component of the diet of salmon,’ said Sandvik. ‘Among other things, it influences the growth and health of the fish.

‘It also gives them the appearance that end consumers look for.

Therefore, an important goal for fish farmers has always been to achieve good, even pigmentation.

‘However, it is clear that the reduced time that salmon are now spending in the seawater stage of growth has been challenging the pigmentation process in most production regions.

‘These new formulations are a big advance for the marketplace because they address that imbalance.’

Skretting ARC’s pigment studies have also furthered knowledge in the equally important area of sea lice treatments and their effects on pigmentation.

Hydrogen peroxide has become widely used as a delousing agent. In Norway, for example, its use as a bathing treatment against sea lice and other challenges has increased several-fold in recent years.

But with hydrogen peroxide being an oxidising agent and astaxanthin being an antioxidant, Skretting ARC researchers felt it was important to learn to what degree the former decreases the pigment level in the flesh of the fish.

These investigations, led by senior researcher Gunvor Struksnæs, found a certain number of fish will break down some of their astaxanthin into idoxanthin (a metabolite of astaxanthin) when faced with a stressful event.

Interestingly, some individuals are affected to a much larger degree than others, which now enables better understanding of the variation that we see in the pigmentation response between individual fish.

These findings complement the research Skretting ARC has been conducting with larger fish in the seawater stage – looking at the effects of hydrogen peroxide bathing, said Leo Nankervis.

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‘We have found a downturn of pigmentation following hydrogen peroxide bathing, but it is not as high as we initially thought it might have been.

‘Additional simulations that haven’t included bathing but have lowered the water levels have also triggered the breakdown of astaxanthin to idoxanthin.

‘We have confirmed that stress, particularly crowding stress, is a major contributor to the transfer of astaxanthin to idoxanthin in salmon.

‘This knowledge has given us another important avenue of further research as we look to establish a bigger picture understanding of the mechanisms that are controlling the degrading of pigmentation in larger fish in seawater systems,’ said Nankervis.

In order to take advantage of the benefits of this new knowledge, Skretting UK plans to offer customers a pigmented range of freshwater diets in size 50 and upwards.

Mark Weir, freshwater products manager at Skretting UK, said: ‘An increasing number of smolts are now reaching seawater at 200g or more.

‘Since an optimal pigmentation regime requires an early start, these fish are missing out and are likely to require larger amounts of expensive pigment later on if they are to catch up.

‘Delayed onset of pigmentation can also increase the risk of poor colour should fish need to be harvested early.

‘Pigmentation in freshwater can fill this gap, reduce overall pigment requirement and reduce risk.’ * Following a request from the European Commission for the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of astaxanthin as feed additive, the regulation preventing salmonids being given synthetic astaxanthin in the first six months of their life has been lifted, with a dietary concentration of 100mg/kg deemed safe. The change in regulation only applies to synthetic astaxanthin where astaxanthin comprises a minimum 96 per cent of total colouring matters. FF

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12/01/2016 15:35:41

Feed – Loch Duart

Royal

treatment

Icelandic firm supplies exclusive capelin meal to Scottish farm that prefers to feed fish with fish

S

cottish salmon farmer Loch Duart has partnered with an Icelandic firm to secure an exclusive supply of fishmeal produced entirely from capelin.

Called Royal, the feed has been developed

by EWOS – which has supplied Loch Duart for 10 years - in conjunction with Isfelag, an Icelandic fishing company based in the Westman Islands.

Since Loch Duart was founded in 1999, it has, it says, been searching for a way to secure the highest quality ingredients for its salmon feed. It has always recognised feed ingredients as being central to sustainability and critical to producing delicious and healthy fish.

As the salmon farming industry has grown, so has the pressure on fishmeal fisheries.

Questions of sustainability have surrounded the use of fishmeal but Loch Duart says its view has remained constant.

The natural diet of a salmon is fish and it believes that fish must be the major part of its salmon diet.

The ideal fish - high up the trophic scale (feeding on large plankton and small shrimps) and short-lived (two to three years, dies after spawning) - is Icelandic capelin.

An advantage of Icelandic capelin is that the fishery is for human consumption (of the

roe primarily) but does not use all of the fish.

Thus the meal available for Loch Duart would be waste from the roe fishery for human consumption.

This resource is the perfect solution for a company that wants to feed fish to fish and produce a tasty, healthy salmon in the most sustainable way.

Dawn Purchase, aquaculture programme manager at the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), said the MSC welcomes the partnership between Loch Duart and Isfelag.

‘The utilisation of the carcases of Icelandic capelin, which are IFFO RS responsibly sourced, is an example of innovative thinking that will ensure fish can remain the diets of farmed salmon long into the future.’

Isfelag or Ísfélag Vestmannaeyja was established in 1901 making it Iceland’s oldest limited company. Today it is one of the largest seafood companies in Iceland, focusing on pelagic species.

It has ethical principles that fit well with those of Loch Duart. Whether it be in the minutiae of repairing the 1.5 tonne tote bags with a sewing machine or, in macro-scale, the installation of a water treatment works (an investment of €1.6 million), Isfelag’s commitment to a better way is clearly evident.

This fishing company has a large proportion of the capelin quota, processes the roe for human consumption in Japan, Russia and some European countries and has been looking for a better use for the carcasses.

Loch Duart is an independent Scottish salmon farm based in north-west Scotland. Producing around 4,000 tonnes per year, it employs 85 people in the Hebrides and Sutherland. The salmon is sold to leading restaurants and retailers at home and abroad.

Loch Duart managing director Alban Denton said: ‘Loch Duart’s dream of finding sustainable North Atlantic fishmeal/oil sources is coming true.

‘This is the realisation of a long term aspiration for Loch Duart. To find a company which so clearly reflects our own principles is a fantastic step forward.

‘To rear salmon for the most discerning palate as we do, we need to secure sources of

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Royal treatment

To rear salmon for the most discerning “palate, we need to secure sources of top grade, sustainable fishmeal ”

Clockwise from above: Icelandic capelin; Alban Denton with Stefan Fridriksson; the Isfelag site in the Westman Islands

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Loch Duart PED.indd 45

top grade, sustainable fishmeal. When Isfelag offered us Royal, it was a game-changing development in our long search for the right ingredients for our feed.’

Stefan Fridriksson, CEO of Isfelag, believes that this move will show how relationships between salmon farmers and fishmeal providers can strengthen the sustainability of both industries.

‘The Royal meal is the very best we can produce. Fished for only within quota, held in chilled boats for the shortest of time, it is extremely fresh when processed because a proportion goes for human consumption.

‘We are proud to add to our reputation for delivering delicious food by producing the Royal meal - using every part of this wonderful fish and delighted to find a customer like Loch Duart.’

Loch Duart said: ‘It is extraordinary that two businesses in two extremely remote areas of the world have managed to find a way to link together, providing greater security for employment in very fragile rural areas.

‘Add to this that these businesses both believe in driving sustainability to the very core of their business makes it as rare as winning the lottery.

With matching ethos, experience and strategy our two businesses have a long future working together.’ FF

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12/01/2016 15:30:36

Feed – EWOS

BY LINDSAY POLLOCK

RAPID results

EWOS launches latest high performance diet for Scottish salmon WEEK NUMBER

OPAL 110

RAPID

135

EGI

160 110

EFI

96 123

EEI

167 0

30

60

90

120

150

180

Faster growth – the new norm Scottish salmon farmers are acutely aware of the benefits of shortening the production cycle

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EWOS ped.indd 46

5250g

10

4750g

5750g

04

4150g

4900g

50

3600g

4200g

44

2800g

3150g

38

1900g

2050g

32

1100g

1100g RAPID

OPAL 110 FISH WEIGHT (g)

A

s farming companies in Scotland now place an increasingly high emphasis on reducing production time at sea and growing larger, resilient fish, EWOS Scotland is launching its new high performance grower diet, EWOS RAPID, this month.

EWOS RAPID is specially adapted to provide optimised nutritional support at the appropriate time in the salmonid life cycle, delivering faster growth.

Launched in Norway in late 2014, EWOS RAPID has quickly established itself as the best performing salmon diet in the market, producing excellent growth results in both controlled and commercial trials.

‘EWOS RAPID has become a leading product in our sales portfolio in Norway with strong uptake from Norwegian farmers,’ said David Morrice, commercial director for EWOS Scotland.

15

Above left: EWOS RAPID produced positive results in trials

and are making significant strategic changes and investments to support this.

The key production challenges of deteriorating gill condition and sea lice infestation and their associated treatment risks and costs are omnipresent.

Ways to minimise the impacts of these factors are at the fore of farmers’ minds.

Reducing biological risk is now the key driver behind choosing to feed high performance diets and stock larger smolts.

‘Over the past five years, we have seen an increase in our sales of high performance diets,’ said Morrice. ‘We currently have a well established product, EWOS HP, in the market which continues to deliver excellent results for farmers focused on achieving faster growth.

‘We will continue to supply EWOS HP to our customers but will also offer EWOS RAPID for those that want to build on this concept and maximise their results.’

New EWOS RAPID EWOS RAPID is the new high performance grower feed. Based on the EWOS COMPASS concept, EWOS RAPID delivers the highest fish performance and lowers FCR by providing salmon with a finely tuned balance of macronutrients like protein and fat, which is varied by smolt type and season.

EWOS COMPASS is the company’s suite of feed and feeding strategy optimisation tools, which guides EWOS RAPID formulation to be adaptive to

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Advertorial] the salmon’s nutritional needs while taking into account temperature, day length and smolt type.

The firm’s extensive studies on salmon body composition at multiple points in the salmon seawater life cycle have shown what critical nutritional components they need and when to deploy them.

This ensures EWOS uniquely tailors the diet to meet the needs of the fish and do not under or over deliver on macronutrients. Along with the correct macronutrient balance, selecting the highest quality raw materials and functional components are key elements driving EWOS RAPID’s performance.

Ewan Cameron, product manager at EWOS Scotland, said: ‘We understand that one size does not fit all. For example, the sea water temperatures can vary between production zones and there is a significant difference between the growth profiles of an S1 and an S0 salmon.

‘The unique formulation strategy of EWOS RAPID takes this into consideration and Scottish farmers using RAPID can expect a tailor made solution for our production environment, optimised for S1 or S0 fish, ensuring the best growth and FCR is achieved.’

In addition, EWOS can also provide detailed and dynamic cost/benefit analyses using the EWOS OPTIMISER tool to support feed strategy choice.This enables farmers to adopt the optimal feed and growth strategy for maximum profitability under any market conditions.

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EWOS ped.indd 47

Proof of performance Commercial validation of EWOS RAPID comes from a leading Norwegian faming company where impressive results on growth performance and feed conversion were achieved.

The trial took place between August 2014 and spring 2015. Five pens were fed on EWOS RAPID and five were fed on a standard EWOS grower diet.The results are outlined below.

EWOS RAPID delivers higher growth and lower feed conversion At its conclusion, there was a large positive difference in EGI (growth controlled for variation in fish weight) and significantly lower EFI (feed conversion controlled for variation in fish weight), even when the control fish group also produced a very good result.The EEI (EWOS Efficiency Index) indicates a measure of production efficiency expressed as the differential between growth and FCR.The higher the value, the greater the growth output per unit FCR. Reflecting on the trial, Morrice said: ‘Adding to our extensive set of scientific documentation, this trial showed very strong results for EWOS RAPID in a commercial setting and gives us confidence that Scottish salmon farmers will also see benefits from using this advanced diet.’

Fewer weeks at sea for EWOS RAPID fed fish The aim of shortening the life cycle was

We look forward to “bringing this product development to our Scottish customers

”

achieved during the trial with the EWOS RAPID pens achieving both larger fish and harvesting earlier than the control group.

EWOS RAPID pens were harvested between five and seven weeks earlier than the standard grower diet pens, potentially avoiding further treatment costs and mortality.

The trial results demonstrate that EWOS RAPID delivers excellent growth and feed conversion results in a commercial environment.

Morrice concludes: ‘We look forward to bringing this product development to our Scottish customers in January 2016 and will provide close follow up and support to all users.’

For further information about EWOS RAPID and EWOS COMPASS, contact ewan_cameron@cargill.com Lindsay Pollock is EWOS account and business development manager. FF

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12/01/2016 15:28:19

Feed – Prize

Fish-free

challenge

American university launches competition to find the most commercially viable alternative to fishmeal and oil

F

eed companies have been set a challenge to produce fish-free aquaculture diets in a competition worth more than $100,000 to the winner.

The F3 Fish-Free Feed Challenge, launched in the US at the end of last year, invites firms to produce and sell 100,000 tonnes of seafood-free aquaculture feed using new formulations of proteins and lipids.

Manufacturers of aquaculture diet products have progressed significantly in recent years to reduce the amount of fishmeal and fish oil in their feed, and the goal of the contest is to eliminate all marine meals and oils completely, thereby reducing pressure on forage fisheries.

‘The industry has done a great job of stretching the limited [fishmeal and fish oil] supply and producing a whole lot more,’ said Kevin Fitzsimmons, professor at the University of Arizona (USA), which collaborated with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the New England Aquarium and the organisers of the X-Prize on the competition.

‘But we need more product out there that’s utilising a variety of alternative ingredients. This prize is to encourage that.’

The winner of the F3 Prize — the first company to sell 100,000 tonnes of aquaculture feed

48

Feed Prize.indd 48

with no marine-sourced meal or oil by October 5, 2017— will take home a cash prize of at least $103,025.

An anonymous donor put up the first $100,000 but Fitzsimmons said a crowdsourcing element was added and will remain open indefinitely.

‘We wanted to put a carrot out there, and get innovative people going and to support what everybody agrees needs to be done.’

He told The Advocate, the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s (GAA) magazine, that the money would go directly to a vendor that is ‘putting out a product that needs to be out there’.

The prize money has been transferred to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and must be awarded, by California law, to one of the registered contestants. If no company reaches the 100,000 tonnes threshold by September 15, 2017, the company with the highest verified sales wins.

According to Fitzsimmons, contestants must reveal their ingredients list but not their formulation. At least four companies have already entered since the competition was announced at the GAA’s GOAL conference last October.

Fitzsimmons says additional companies, including some in China, have also expressed interest. Registration is open until April 30, 2016,

with samples due by the end of August.

The F3 prize’s aim is to showcase aquafeed companies which accelerate their sales of seafood-free alternatives. Sales are only possible if the company has innovated fishmeal and fish oil free alternatives in cost and quality, such that it is commercially viable.

Eventually, the organisers’ hope is that these innovations lead to a new product category for consumers, where seafood that is innovative and more environmentally friendly receives special attention.

‘We’re considering the idea that maybe this could be the aquaculture version of grass-fed beef,’ said Fitzsimmons.

‘It’s the same concept. Chefs who support those kind of things might be leaders on this and drive demand so that we get that push and

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Fish-free challenge

Above: Major incentive for feed firms to innovate

the pull from the consumer side.’

A target level of zero for marine-sourced ingredient was implemented due to the difficulty of verifying extremely low amounts of fishmeal or fish oil in aquafeeds.

‘But we can tell if there’s no fishmeal in it,’ Fitzsimmons said. ‘We’re really trying to push innovation.’

Already, a number of alternative ingredients have made fishmeal and fish oil substitution a reality, including soy, algae, insect larvae and

insect meals, amino acid supplements and single-cell proteins. Not all marine ingredients are excluded, however.

‘Seaweed is fine. In fact, that is one we’d be thrilled to see more of,’ said Fitzsimmons.

Animal by-products and genetically modified organisms are allowed too.

For a full list of rules, regulations, deadlines and other information about the competition, including how to register, visit the F3 Fish-Free Feed Challenge website. FF

this could be the aquaculture “Maybeversion of grass-fed beef ” www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

Feed Prize.indd 49

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12/01/2016 15:25:26

Feed – Noba Vital Lipids

NOBA FACTS Noba is a supplier of high energy fat products and has more than 60 years’ experience The company services the feed industry in greater Europe and partners with leading research institutes

BY CATHARINA NIEUWENHUIZEN

Vital

It focuses on nutrients, not just ingredients, and offers maximum delivery flexibility and reliability

ingredient Dutch group wants to team up with the aquaculture industry

N

oba Vital Lipids is a leading Dutch manufacturer and supplier of high energy fat products for the compound feed industries, servicing greater Europe.

Our strengths are rooted in more than 60 years of experience, alongside our high standards of quality, which are fulfilled at every step of the production process, in our R&D and in our nutritional support.

We are looking for knowledge partners in the aquafeed industry to develop our fat and oil products further to fulfil the needs from the industry.

Noba has a large analytical and research laboratory, with safe and reliable input and 110,000 tonnes of storage capacity It also has a large fleet of modern tankcars Noba has full control of the supply chain

aquafeed industry. When you partner with Noba you’ve gained access to more than 60 years of knowledge and experience in oils and fats.

We’re regarded as oils and fats experts in the feed compound industry. We fully control our supply chain, and our dedicated trading/sourcing team directly advises and guides clients on

Building blocks In total, there are about 20 different fatty acids, which are the basic building blocks of various Noba fat and oil products. Some of these fatty acids are essential and are not produced by the body. These are needed for a particular functionality and should be taken through the animal feed. Noba develops alternatives that are better for the animal and contribute to the efficiency of the food production.

Partnering Noba partners with leading research universities and animal feed testing centres to conduct basic nutritional research and in-depth feed trials. We focus on nutrients, not just ingredients.

Our proprietary technology allows us to deliver optimal nutritional value and consistency in every batch we produce.

We are also searching for partners in the

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12/01/2016 16:36:05

Advertorial

When you “partner with Noba you’ve gained access to more than 60 years of knowledge and experience in oils and fats’

”

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Noba PED.indd 51

market developments.

This highly experienced team offers quick, high quality solutions and advice to our partners so they stay ahead of the curve.

But we’re not just experts in oils and fats. We also possess a deep understanding of the trends in our customers’ markets, making us the ideal partner for companies in need of flexibility and expertise.

Our expertise in oils and fats extends beyond our in-depth understanding of the market and supply chain.

Nobacithin Aqua Lecithin has many nutritional benefits. The phospholipids in the lecithin have a positive effect on a higher survival and growth, improve the pellet quality, reduce leaching of water soluble nutrients, increase lipid retention and acts as an antioxidant.

Noba Vital Lipids developed a liquid lecithin blend, named Nobacithin Aqua R100. Native liquid lecithin has a very high viscosity and is therefore not so easy to handle in a feed plant.

In Nobacithin Aqua R100, oil and fatty acids have been added to lecithin which makes its

Clockwise from above: Research and development; some 110,000 tonnes of storage capacity; the Amsterdam complex

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Feed – Noba Vital Lipids

application much easier. This Nobacithin Aqua R100 is based upon rape lecithin. It is a NON-GMO blend. Beside this rape base blend, there are also mixtures of Nobacithin Aqua based upon soybean lecithin.

What makes Nobacithin Aqua R100 stand out from other lecithin products? There are many dry lecithin products on the market, mainly used for the juvenile and larvae stages.

A liquid product is often cheaper than a dry product. With the usage of Nobacithin Aqua you have the possibility to increase the inclusion levels of lecithin, and that is interesting because of the nutritional mechanisms and benefits.

Because of the stickiness of lecithin, blended with fish oil it may be applied as coating for the pellets contributing to a better pellet quality.

Nobacithin Aqua is suitable for larvae, juvenile, and grower diets for many species of fish and crustaceans.

Left: Production of high energy fats

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Vital products Noba Vital Lipids has developed the Noba Vital range for the stabilisation of the intestinal microflora, the strengthening of the animal intestinal barrier and for the overall positive influence it has on animal physiology.

Animals that are full of vitality are better armed against infection and illness, they have a more resilient immune system and they need less antibiotics.

The medium-chain fatty acids in Noba Vital Plus, Noba Vital Pure, Noba Vital Pro, Noba Vital SP and Noba Dry Vital Pure have an anti-microbial effect on both gram-positive and on gram-negative bacteria. All Vital products are very easily digestible.

Catharina Nieuwenhuizen is nutritional and technical support manager at Noba. For more information visit www.noba.nl FF

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12/01/2016 16:36:50

DON’T MISS THE UK’S LARGEST AQUACULTURE EXHIBITION AND CONFERENCE

25 & 26 MAY 2016 AVIEMORE, SCOTLAND An international event with visitors from all over the world, meet:

in

International Aquaculture

Experts Influential

Executives

in

Government and Policy Makers

TO BOOK ONE OF THE FEW REMAINING STANDS AT THIS UNIQUE EVENT Visit www.aquacultureuk.com for more information or contact info@aquacultureuk.com

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12/01/2016 09:53:30

Taimen group – Alands Fiskforadling

Try our trout!

Finnish farmer offers a high quality alternative to dominant salmon

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leading Finnish fish farm is set to champion the cause of rainbow trout and challenge the dominance of salmon in terms of taste and quality.

Alands Fiskforadling (Aland Islands Fishprocesser) is the largest subsidiary of the Taimen group and is located in a small island society in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden.

The company’s focus is on the production and processing of large rainbow trout, and also smaller amounts of sea trout.

Gutting is done at the company’s central processing plant on the Aland Islands every day of the year. The company is the only one operating in Finland that can deliver year round fresh – and frozen - fish to its customers.

The company was founded in 1989 and has 10 production plants in the Aland Islands, along with a further 11 in Sweden. The total production is around 8,000 tonnes, and annual turnover is more than €30 million.

The company, which has over 70 employees, sees an ideal opportunity to expand its export markets for trout.

Managing director Olaf Karlsson told Fish Farmer: ‘Salmon is globally a larger, more well-known and dominating product and there is no doubt that it is an attractive fish for our customers and consumers.

‘However, in our opinion rainbow trout presents a delicious, tastier alternative, and our fish stocks offer the highest quality in the region, and maybe even on the planet!’

The fish from Aland Islands are reared in net bags measuring up to 100m in circumference and 8-10m in depth. The maximum breeding capacity in each bag is in the region of 7080,000kg.

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The fish are transported partly live by wellboat and partly outbled in ice/water in big bags from the different farms to the central gutting plant in the small municipality of Foglo in the Aland archipelago.

The fish will reach customers within one to two days from harvesting.

Fry and fingerlings come from the company’s own brood stock, partly from freshwater hatcheries within the Taimen group and partly from contracted farmers in Finland and Sweden.

Roe for hatching is produced in two to three batches every year to secure an even flow of fish for consumption throughout the year.

Clean, cold and crystal clear waters and upstream swimming gives the fish a great flavour and a low fat percentage.

In addition to the water flow, the oxygen content and sufficient swimming space are key factors for the development of the fish.

The trout are fed by computer controlled feeding systems operated by professional and experienced personnel in order to minimise feed consumption and the environmental load.

After roughly two growing seasons, the trout reach their harvesting size of 2-3kg.

During the harvesting process the fish is lifted from the net pens, stunned, gutted, washed, graded and packed for delivery. Preservability is ensured by an unbroken cold chain at 0-3 degrees C. The company can guarantee full traceability of both fish and feed. Each fish crate shipped to suppliers gives the location of the fish farm and indicates the precise catch date and time.

The production operates responsibly in full recognition of environmental and socio-economic sensitivities, meeting the heavy require-

Above and right: Highest quality rainbow trout

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12/01/2016 16:34:26

Advertorial

ments of regulation and supervision, employing full traceability and labelling.

The company’s research effort continues to focus on operational improvements that benefit the environment and profitability in a sustainable way.

There is continual vigilance in seeking opportunities for expansion and efficiency savings, such as the volume purchase of inputs and automation.

The group continues to develop best practice protocols for the production and delivery of feed that supports the sustainable farming of healthy, nutritious and flavoursome fish.

Vigilance ensures there are no contaminants, and ingredients are biodegradable. These efforts deliver a win-win for the company and the environment, with reduced inputs and waste outputs.

The ratio of 1.2-1 for feed inputs for farmed fish compares with a 10-1 for beef production.

Fish welfare is monitored and taken seriously, with vaccination and other preventative meas-

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Taimen PED.indd 55

Fish will only feed and grow if they are “ content and there is no doubt that these are very happy fish indeed! ”

ures. The use of antibiotics is strictly prohibited.

The high quality of the personnel at the company ensures special expertise, which can only be acquired through time and experience.

Fish will only feed and grow if they are content and there is no doubt that the Alands rainbow trout are very happy fish indeed!

Reared without the influence of the Gulf Stream, the Alands trout achieve their catch weight significantly slower than Atlantic salmon.

This means that the Alands meat is superior in flavour, firmness and with a lower fat percentage. The consumer is ensured of getting the best possible product - healthy clean fish which also looks great on the counter.

This is set to be a great year for Alands and for

their excellent rainbow trout. Karlsson is keen to develop the company’s exports further and would be delighted to receive enquiries from anyone interested in setting up a partnership.

There is no doubt that salmon is a popular and high quality fish but rainbow trout also has plenty to offer consumers and it will be interesting to watch its growth during the coming years.

With farms like Aland’s demonstrating such excellence in good practice in rearing these fish, it is consumers who will be the winners when they enjoy some of the finest fish anywhere in the world.

Olaf Karlsson can be contacted at +358 40 742 6840. Visit www.taimen-yhtiot.fi/ alands-fiskforadling/ for more information. FF

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12/01/2016 16:34:42

Markets & Retail News

Scottish salmon partners with Master Chefs of France

THE Master Chefs of France, in partnership with Label Rouge Scottish salmon, have announced their Best Chef Apprentice of France at the 61st competition for the Meilleur Apprenti Cuisinier de France.

At one of the most prestigious schools of gastronomy in France, the Ecole Ferrandi in central Paris, ten shortlisted finalists from 282 apprentice chef participants across France were given four hours to prepare four settings of each of three dishes including seafood, meat and dessert.

Label Rouge Scottish salmon escalope was the primary ingredient of the seafood dish, which was finished off with scallops.

Label Rouge Scottish salmon’s association with the Master Chefs of France spans well over 20 years.

As a main sponsor of one of Europe’s chef associations, and as Scotland’s largest food export, Scottish salmon continues to fly the flag on behalf of the food industry of Scotland.

The overall winner of the competition was Gwendal Briant, studying at the Ferrandi group in western Paris. Briant works with chef Romain Gicquel at the Ferme de Voisins near Paris.

The winner of the seafood dish was Antonin Buron, who studies in Moutiers (in the Alps) and was supported by chef Stéphane Buron and

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Health message drives up fish consumption

The fish and good health message appears to be getting through to the British public.

A SURVEY for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has found that one in six people in the UK are now eating more seafood than a year ago.

When asked most of those surveyed said the eventual winner being named had increased their fish intake because the best fish and chip takeaway they are trying to eat in the UK. more healthily.

The aim of the awards is to Other told the showcase the best fish and chip businesses and individuals in the seafood eco-label they UK, while setting high standards had switched to fish in order widen the for the industry to continually type of dishes they aspire to. prepared or because Growing from a single award they were trying to eat in 1988 to now encompass more less meat. than a dozen categories, the A small number said awards showcase a diverse range of accolades that cater for every they had cut meat out of their diet altogether. aspect of running a successful Toby Middleton, profish and chip business. gramme director for They recognise everything from MSC in the UK, said: traditional takeaways to mobile operators, to excellence in train- ‘At this time of year, many of us resolve to ing and responsible sourcing.

Awards celebrate industry’s best THE National Fish & Chip Awards winners will be announced on January 20, 2016, at the Lancaster London Hotel.

The Independent Takeaway Fish and Chip Shop of the Year Award, which currently has a top ten regional shortlist, is the most hotly contested category, with

chef Michel Rochedy, both from the two Michelin star Le Chabichou in the high-end ski resort Courchevel.

The event finished off with Label Rouge Scottish salmon served at the gala dinner in the Grand Hotel Intercontinental Paris.

The recipes were developed by Fernand Mischler, former chef at the two star Michelin Auberge du Cheval Blanc in Lembach (Alsace).

He is also former president of the Master Chefs of France and ‘godfather’ of this year’s competition.

Label Rouge Scottish salmon was originally produced exclusively for the French market, but its reputation for high quality and subtle flavours has seen demand from new and emerging markets, including the Middle East and European countries such as Germany and Switzerland.

Annual exports of Label Rouge are approaching 8,000 tonnes.

The Label Rouge quality mark is awarded Above: Overall winner by the French Ministry for Agriculture and Gwendal Briant with the Fisheries only to those products that demonMaster Chefs of France strate superior quality, particularly in relation to taste.

In 1992, Scottish farmed salmon was the first non-French product and the first fish to receive the mark of distinction.

eat more healthily or try new things, and incorporating more fish into our diets can be a good way to achieve both goals.

‘But our poll took place before New Year’s resolutions were made, so clearly for a lot of people the switch to eating more fish is not just for January.

‘There seems to be a growing, year-round interest in ‘meatfree Mondays’, for example, as people try to cut back on the amount of meat they eat, without becoming out-and-out vegetarians.

‘As demand for seafood increases, so does the need to protect our oceans from overfishing. That

means it’s increasingly important to ensure that the fish we eat is caught sustainably, so that future seafood supplies and the marine environment are safeguarded,’ added Middleton.

Almost one in four full-time students and more than one in five Londoners polled by YouGov on behalf of the MSC said they were eating more fish these days.

The survey found that 20 per cent of people living in households without children were more likely to have stepped up their fish consumption.

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

12/01/2016 15:23:35

Markets & Retail News

Grimsby ‘tops world’ for fish and chips

Europeans eating less fish but paying more

CONSUMERS in the European Union are buying less fish, but are spending more money it, a new report suggests.

The development is highlighted in the authoritative EU Fish Market report, published last month. The downward trend has been going on since 2008 with consumption dropping by 2kg a Foodie year since that time despite constant exhortahotspot tions that fish is good for health.

Nevertheless, the report says that Europeans remain major consumers of seafood dominated It prides itself on its by captured or wild caught fish, which accounts numerous traditional for three quarters of the total. chippies Aquaculture makes up the remaining 25 per cent. Tuna, cod and salmon remain the most popular products with an average consumption of 2 kg per capita respectively.

The report says the EU is the largest trader of fishery and aquaculture products in the world in terms of value. Values of EU imports have been ‘These foodie hotincreasing since 2009, at an average rate of six spots were determined per cent per year, reaching €21 billion in 2014. by looking at the strength of traveller endorsements on the Booking.com destination finder for a particular food experience, such as fish and chips, compared to other endorsements like shopping and nightlife.

GLOBAL travellers who want the best fish and chips are being directed to Grimsby by one of the world’s leading travel websites.

BOOKING.COM, which provides holidaymakers with hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms every year, has included the town, and its neighbour Cleethorpes as the

the Netherlands for cheese and Dalian in China for gourmet seafood.

Booking.com says: ‘The seaside town of Grimsby was rated as a hotspot for this much-loved national delicacy, priding itself on its numerous traditional chippies.’

The company said that respondents may well have come from surrounding areas like Cleethorpes which is why it was described as a seaside town.

Grimsby was the place most mentioned for fish and chips on place to go for Britthe site. The survey, ain’s favourite dish. it adds is the result It is ranked alongof over 65 million side seemingly more guest reviews sharing glamorous culinary hotspots such as Tokyo customer insights on what makes a great for sushi, Naples destination. for pizza, Gouda in

“

”

German poultry giant moves into fish business The PHW Group, Germany’s largest poultry provider, has teamed up with the Icelandic fishing company Samherji to provide it with a platform into the seafood business.

THE two companies are planning a joint venture which is still subject to regulatory approval. The tie up is being seen as significant for both companies.

Samherji is a vertically integrated seafood company, controlling a significant volume of fishing quota, operating a powerful fleet of fishing vessels; freezer and fresh fish trawlers, as well as multi-purpose vessels, white fish factories and fish farming.

Samherji also runs extensive sales and marketing operations which are coordinated at the company´s head office. It has interests in the UK and mainland Europe as well as Iceland.

With about 6,000 employees and a total turnover of over 2.3 billion euros, the PHW Group produces and markets high-quality poultry specialities, such as chicken, turkey and duck, under the brand name of Wiesenhof.

Its other business sectors include animal feed and animal health, human nutrition and human healthcare in a Group consisting of over 35 independent firms. It is regarded as one of the most important food companies in Germany.

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Retail News.indd 57

Although not one of Europe’s leading fish consumers, demand for fish is growing in Germany and the two companies will use their marketing expertise to help promote that growth. Fish consumption in Germany currently averages around 15 kg per person per year, less than a quarter of meat consumption. Until fairly recently most German fish eaters were to be found around coastal areas where fish markets are commonplace.

Thanks to some skilful displays by those two well-known discount store chains Lidl and Aldi, seafood is gaining in popularity and fresh seafood can now be found nationwide. . Health scares about eating too much red and cured meat – Germans just love their wurst and cured hams – fish is taking on a new importance.

Scotland toasts year of food

SCOTLAND’S tourist industry was boosted by a successful Year of Food and Drink in 2015, reported Scotland Food & Drink website.

‘Businesses have continued to build on past successes, increasing the number of visitors from Europe, America and from crucial domestic markets,’ said Scottish Tourist Minister Fergus Ewing.

Farmed salmon is Scotland’s biggest food export and the aquaculture industry was worth £ 1.86 billion to the Scottish economy last year.

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12/01/2016 15:23:57

Processing News

Saucy Fish heads to Middle East The Grimsby based Icelandic Seachill processing plant is preparing to ramp up its output this year following a deal to sell the Saucy Fish Co range into Dubai and other parts of the United Arab Emirates

Smoker looks on the bright side

Easy access Our mission is to get “more people eating more fish, more often

”

IT is hoped this deal will help to double Saucy Fish exports over the next two years.

Saucy Fish has also become the first major British seafood brand to launch its own website, allowing customers to buy direct. The launch, two months ago, followed the decision by Tesco to delist the product range for the second time in five years.

The Middle East announcement follows a

string of international moves from the Saucy Fish Co as it continues to increase its international hold.

Saucy Fish products are now available in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Belgium and in 181 Whole Food Market stores across five regions of the United States.

Spinney’s, which is affiliated with Waitrose, will stock Saucy products across 12 stores in Dubai.

The range is made up of five products from Saucy’s popular UK offerings.

Paul Macis, international and business development manager, said: ‘This is a big deal for the Saucy Fish Co. ‘We’re very excited to introduce Saucy products to a new market in Dubai; having identified a premium partner in Spinney’s, we’re confident the range will prove popular, especially among expats from the UK.

‘International purchases currently account for around eight per cent of Saucy Fish sales but we expect this to nearly double to 15 per cent by the end of 2016.’

The Saucy Fish Co was launched in 2010.

The company says it has transformed the way millions of Britons think about fish and are emulating this success overseas.

Earlier this year the firm secured CoolBrand status for the

third year running, joining the likes of Netflix and Aston Martin.

Amanda Webb, sales and marketing director, said: ‘Our mission at the Saucy Fish Co is to get more people eating more fish, more often, and with the launch of our new Saucy Shop we’re making buying fish even easier.

‘We decided to build the shop in response to the many calls and emails we receive.’

Birds Eye’s Recipe for success BIRDS Eye, the UK’s leading frozen food and retail seafood brand, appears to be ready to beef up its digital marketing output following the appointment of digital marketing agency Recipe.

Recipe has been brought in to manage digital communications in the UK. Birds Eye’s other UK agencies will not be affected by this move, and will be continuing their work with the brand throughout 2016.

The iconic fish finger producer, part of the Iglo Group, was bought by the US based company Nomad Holdings for £1.9 billion last year.

Nomad later snapped up Findus’s

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European and Scandinavian operations for around £500 million in September.

Nomad says it is committed to growing the Birds Eye brand in Britain in both seafoods and general frozen food.

Steve Chantry, Birds Eye UK market-

ing director, said: ‘Creating engaging, forward thinking digital content is of great importance to Birds Eye as we increasingly work with, and are influenced by technology.

‘Recipe is one of the leading agencies in its field, so we’re excited to collaborate closely with them as we continue cementing Birds Eye’s digital footprint.’

Recipe won the account following a seven-way competitive pitch. The account will be led by Alistair Morgan, business director, at the London based agency, with the team reporting into Luke Purcell, Birds Eye UK digital marketing manager.

BRITISH salmon smoker MacKnight ended the financial year in the red again, Intrafish reported. But the company believes its position is now strong to ‘move into profitability’.

The firm posted a net loss of £268,552 in the twelve months ended December 2014, up from the previous year when its losses amounted to £771,287.

Gross profit improved yearon-year from £1.5 million to £2.8 million. MacKnight described 2014 as a ‘year of recovery and consolidation’ after it lost a major contract with supermarket Morrisons in 2013.

The company’s US branch had a ‘great year’ in 2015, with record profits, said the company. The focus is on promoting its antibiotic-free value-added salmon products from the UK and to launch several new lines this year.

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12/01/2016 15:20:31

Processing News

New measures to help Young’s workers SCOTLAND’S Business Minister Fergus Ewing announced further measures last month to help workers at Young’s Seafood who are likely to lose their jobs soon.

He issued an update on the actions that members of the Task Force are taking to deliver the Economic Recovery Plan. The measures include: support for directly employed and agency staff to find new jobs through a resource centre, and action

to encourage local employers to flag up vacancies; work with industry bodies to identify new fish sector opportunities in the North East; support for the public and private sector to regenerate Fraserburgh and the wider area.

The Fraserburgh Task Force was set up a few months ago to help workers and communities affected

by Young’s Seafood’s decision to reduce its operations following

the loss of a major Sainsbury’s salmon process contract to Marine Harvest.

It includes representatives of Young’s, USDAW, Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council, local elected representatives and industry bodies.

Ewing said: ‘Since the Task Force met for the first time in October, the Economic Recovery Plan to support workers and help the local economy is

taking shape thanks to intensive work by all members.

‘We continue to support Young’s staff in their bid to stay in work.

‘We know that the majority of directly employed Young’s staff continue to work but face redundancy in the New Year, while many agency staff have already been redeployed or moved away.

‘We are engaged with other employers in the area, across all sectors, to flag up

Above: Fergus Ewing

vacancies to affected employees so that we can minimise the time people may be out of

work and a major jobs fair will take place in Fraserburgh on January 28.’

Thai Union to buy German seafood leader The global seafood giant Thai Union is looking to buy Germany’s seafood leader, Rügen Fisch.

THAI Union, which is the world’s largest canned tuna processor, said it planned to secure a majority stake in the northern German company, which specialises in a wide range of canned and chilled herring and mackerel products.

The German company has a turnover in excess of 140 million euros and employs more than 800 people in some of the most modern fish processing plants in Europe.

Thai Union is anxious to tie things up quickly, indicating that it hopes to complete the

deal, subject to regulatory approval, by the end of January.

Thai Union has been on an expansionist path over the past two years and is constantly looking at opportunities in Europe.

However, the company has been under fire lately over allegations that some of the outsource companies it hires have been using child or slave labour.

The company has promised to investigate the claims, saying any use of child labour was unacceptable.

Thiraphong Chansiri, president and CEO of Thai Union, said: ‘Germany is one of the largest seafood markets and part of our strategic pillars for growth in Europe.

‘Through this partnership

with Rugen Fisch, Thai Union becomes a market leader in Germany and further strengthens its position as one of the European seafood leaders.’

Berthold Brinkmann, chairman of the Advisory Board of Rügen Fisch, said his company is known for its strong brands and traditional heritage: ‘We firmly believe that due to our high product quality, modern production facilities and successful distribution network with German retailers, we are the ideal partner for Thai Union.’

He expected the deal to lead to growth both at home and overseas.

Fire ravaged fish plant set to reopen THE Northbay fish processing factory at Peterhead is about to reopen - just a year after it was devastated by fire.

The company says it is ready to commence pelagic processing when the mackerel season gets underway later this month.

‘A big effort throughout 2015 saw the fire damaged building demolished, cleared and

a new processing facility built on the same site,’ the company said in a statement.

‘The new building houses a brand new internal layout with some of the most advanced equipment for pelagic processing and freezing.’

The fire broke out on January 17 last year with flames lighting up the night sky in dramatic fashion.

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Processing News.indd 59

Two major areas of the factory were destroyed in the fire, which was alight through the night.

The plant’s main processing and packing facilities were lost, along with its office and administration blocks.

Although police began an investigation into the cause it was thought at the time that the fire was the result of an electrical fault.

Almost immediately

Aberdeenshire Council offered practical help to the 120 full-time and 100 temporary staff whose jobs were affected by the fire.

Local fishing companies also helped by pledging to fulfil contracts.

Northbay, which is one of the biggest employers in the area, said key parts of the factory remained operational and promised to rebuild the site.

The speed at which the

site has been brought back into action has impressed many, including the Peterhead Harbour Authority.

Because the damage was so extensive, the company has been able to completely redesign the site.

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All well and good Wellboats play an increasingly important role in the running of marine salmon farms, from the beginning through to the end of the production cycle

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s the salmon industry becomes more consolidated, and vertically integrated, wellboats are now being used routinely for a variety of essential tasks that help with the efficient running of salmon farms. Custom designed, wellboats are used to transfer smolts to sea water sites, to grade fish, transfer fish between seawater sites and to carry fish to harvest. Wellboats are also sometimes used to carry out bath treatments for sea lice.

There are a number of risks associated with the use of wellboats, in particular the transfer of pathogens to live fish within the wellboat, and into the sea as a result of discharging potentially infected water. In Scotland, these issues have been acknowledged with the establishment of the Wellboat Technical Standards Working Group in 2013. Amongst its recommendations include: that all marine vessels should log and record their position and the status of their valves; that all water from

dead-haul of fish to processing plants should be treated on-shore; that all water should be filtered prior to discharge into the sea; and that of wellboat transport water be proposed as a priority for the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre.

For their part, the wellboat manufacturers are already working hard to address these issues, and the modern wellboat is a technically sophisticated piece of kit, with a number of features that address issues of biosecurity. For

example, Sølvtrans, the world leading company within transport of live salmon uses a closed valves system, ensuring that when they transport live fish, no water is loaded or discharged to the sea during transportation or unloading.

Its new vessels are also equipped with lice filters with 150 μ for circulated water, which collect lice and other organic materials from the water, minimising the risk of any transported fish being contaminated by diseases, infection, sea lice etc from the nearby fish farms. FF

Fish Farmer VOLUME 38

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NUMBER 10

CATCHING THE BUG

The insects for feed business about to take off

AN AQUA-TONIC

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Investigating fledgling field

OCTOBER 2015

17

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Fish Farmer INDUSTRY PIONEER

Under control

Norway – Research Council

VOLUME 38

NUMBER 03

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PROCESSING UPDATE

Preview of Seafood Expo Global in Brussels

The environment is more stable and the fish use less energy adapting to it

MARCH 2015

COMMUNITY FARMS

Harvesting sea cucumbers in Madagascan villages

Under control

Above: Project participants at the centre’s opening. Right: CtrlAQUA scientists.

Photos by Terje Aamodt/Nofima.

Joint approach between scientists and industry to address challenges of closed-containment systems

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our Norwegian research institutions, two outside Norway and several industry partners from technology and the aquaculture industry have started operations at a centre for innovation in closed-containment systems.

The centre, CtrlAQUA, has been given NOK 200 million and eight years to reach its goal of making closed-containment systems for salmon up to one kilogram.

Innovations in closed-containment, where the salmon is separated from the outside environment by a tight barrier, can be important for the further development of the industry,

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helping to address challenges such as sea lice, diseases and escapes, as well as reduce production times.

Closed systems can be land-based, where water is recycled, or sea-based, in which large floating tanks receive clean water from depth.

In CtrlAQUA, the research will deal with both approaches.

The main focus of the centre is innovation in closed-containment systems for the most vulnerable periods of the salmon production cycle, such as the first sea water, post-smolt, phase.

The centre will also contribute to better production control, fish welfare and sustainability

in closed-containment farms. This will happen through the development of new and reliable sensors, minimising environmental impact through recycling of nutrients and reducing the risk of escape, and diseases transmission to wild stocks.

Senior scientist Bendik Fyhn Terjesen, from Nofima, who is the director of the centre, said that closed-containment systems for salmon up to one kilogram have further advantages than simply preventing lice and escapes.

‘We can control the environment in which the fish lives in a closed-containment system.

The environment is more stable and the fish

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use less energy adapting to it. This means that the salmon has more energy available for growth and good health.’

Closed systems for strategic phases in salmon farming can help to make the Norwegian vision of an eight-fold growth in value creation from aquaculture possible, and lead to an increased number of jobs and the production of healthy seafood.

In the centre there will be three departments: technology and environment, led by Dr Fyhn Terjesen; preventative fish health, led by Harald Takle, also from Nofima; and fish production and welfare, led by Lars Ebbesson of Uni Research.

CtrlAQUA is one of 17 Centres for Research-Based Innovation (SFI), a major programme created by the Research Council of Norway.

The primary goal of the SFI programme is to strengthen companies’ capacity for innovation, and to develop leading industry relevant research.

Nofima is accompanied by five solid institutions in CtrlAQUA: Uni Research, the University of Bergen, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Freshwater Institute in the US and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The University of Bergen will have principal responsibility for research education at the centre. The total budget for CtrlAQUA will be

”

NOK 196 million, spread over eight years.

Industrial partners from the supplier industry are Krüger Kaldnes AS, Pharmaq Analytiq, Pharmaq AS, Oslofjord Ressurspark AS, Storvik Aqua AS and Aquafarm Equipment AS. Participants from the aquaculture industry are Marine Harvest ASA, Grieg Seafood ASA, Lerøy Vest AS, Cermaq Norway AS, Bremnes Seashore AS, Smøla klekkeri og settefiskanlegg AS, Marine producers Norway AS and Firda sjøfarmer AS. The formal opening by the Research Council took place at the end of May at Nofima, Sunndalsøra. Norwegian fisheries minister Elisabeth Aspaker, present at the ceremony, said the goal of the CtrlAQUA SFI is perfectly compatible with the government’s ambitions for the aquaculture industry.

‘I have great expectations for the achievements of CtrlAQUA. Even though eight years is a long time, it is urgent that we find solutions to reach the goals. CtrlAQUA is an important part of this.’

The director of innovation in the Research Council, Eirik Normann, presented the SFI plaque to Fyhn Terjesen, saying: ‘You have put together a very strong consortium. I want to point out that the committee that evaluated the application was fascinated by the innovation that the concept brings with it, and it believes that the centre will probably produce important innovations within aquaculture.’ FF

NOFIMA FACTS With 360 employees and customers from 49 different countries, Nofima’s turnover in 2014 was £527 million The company is currently engaged in 620 projects worldwide.

Nofima has several laboratories and pilot plants, which it uses for research, including: BioLab – an accredited contract and research laboratory; NAMAB – a flexible minifactory; and Patogen Pilot Plant – Europe’s first highsecurity production hall.

Nofima carries out research for the fisheries, aquaculture and food industries, including: breeding and genetics; capture-based aquaculture; fish health; and consumer and sensory sciences.

Each year Nofima organises several symposia, courses and seminars in which its scientists share their expertise.

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12/01/2016 09:55:14

Archive – From January-February 1996

Rises in the pipeline

Little can be done to stem the tide of international factors affecting raw material prices

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combination of factors in 1995 led to the most impressive rise in feed and raw material costs for 30 years. Pundits in the feeds industry see all livestock sectors being affected, but predict the main impact in the intensive livestock sector, chiefly poultry and pig production and aquaculture.

World supplies of maize and wheat are reportedly at their lowest levels for 20 years, due to poor harvests in the USA and Canada, the world’s largest producers of these staple crops, against an upsurge in intensive livestock production in Asia and the Far East leading to increased demand.

Couples with this, the removal of a substantial acreage of grain-producing land in ‘set-aside’ programmes by governments in Europe and North America to reduce costs of supporting grain production has resulted, for example, in wheat prices in the UK and worldwide being higher than for the past 20 years.

Reaction to the increase in cereal prices sent vegetable proteins higher, just as soya bean growers in the USA were hit by a disappointing harvest.

Soya meal prices by the end of the year had risen 20 per cent from August.

International trade Unfortunately for farmers of salmonids, the main ingredients of the feed, fish meal and fish oils, with soya and blood meal to provide some spread of protein in certain diets, are internationally traded and subject to price fluctuations influenced by many factors, not least supply and demand of feed commodities. Top quality spray-dried blood showed dramatic price increases during the year.

In fact, fish meal and fish oil prices have risen partly as a result of the major shift in commodities, and partly through another set of factors, which saw the price of fish meal increase by $100/tonne (£75/t) around November. In six months fish meal prices increased by some 30 per cent and fish oil by 50 per cent during 1995.

The main reasons centred on poorer fishing in Chile, Peru and Iceland which brought a 0.5 million tonne – or 12 per cent – cut in fish meal production from these main exporting countries. Prices rose steadily all year and fish meal stocks at the end of October 1995 were at their lowest since 1984.

An increase in production, expected in Peru during October and November, did not materialise, landings being so poor that some processing factories were ‘mothballed’. The Peruvian and Chilean authorities brought fishing to a halt in some areas by short bans. In Peru two five-day stoppages were imposed because of the catching of small fish, and in Chile a ban extended from November 13 to December 3 in the central fishing area.

Strong demand Despite the rise in price, demand continued strong in the Far East and Western Europe. China alone imports about 700,000 tonnes of meal a year to support burgeoning intensive livestock industries. In the first six months of 1995 the country bought 460,000 tonnes of meal, and the situation was exacerbated later when the Chinese government announced a decision to impose a 13 per cent import duty on fish meal arriving in China after February 1 this year. This has set off a buying frenzy by the Chinese.

Japan, too, experiencing the demand of growing intensive livestock requirements, has seen a decrease in domestic fish meal output.

Scandinavia has also experienced reduced catches and strong demand,

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Archive - Jan.indd 61

“

Farmers and feed producers are going to be reviewing feeding strategies

”

leading to firmer prices and shortfalls in some grades of fish meal. The increasing demand from salmon farming has created a requirement for an additional 100,000 tonnes (2 per cent) of aquaculture grade fish meal worldwide over the past two years.

Combined fish meal stocks at the end of the third quarter of 1995 were down to 490,000 tonnes.

Aquaculture now accounts for about 20 per cent of total world fish meal usage, and while supplies are obtainable, and fish meal plants are being upgraded to meet the demand for aquaculture grade material, market prices are expected to rise steadily unless demand can be curbed in some way.

To some extent this has already been achieved in aquaculture, where, particularly in salmonid production, improved management and better feeds have brought about reduced FCRs. More can be done, but there is a limit. Farmers and feed producers alike are going to be reviewing feeding strategies and raw materials in a search for alternatives in coming months.

As a by-product of the meal industry, fish oil is also beset by price pressures. This time the main demand is from Eastern Europe, where it is substituted for more expensive vegetable oils in the production of margarine, and in aquaculture.

Buyers have watched the price ex Hamburg rise from $324 in November 1994 to $555 a year later, an inflation of 70 per cent. It underlines the inexorable trend in general feed costs which can be expected in coming months. FF

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s the salmon industry becomes more consolidated, and vertically integrated, wellboats are now being used routinely for a variety of essential tasks that help with the efficient running of salmon farms. Custom designed, wellboats are used to transfer smolts to sea water sites, to grade fish, transfer fish between seawater sites and to carry fish to harvest. Wellboats are also sometimes used to carry out bath treatments for sea lice.

There are a number of risks associated with the use of wellboats, in particular the transfer of pathogens to live fish within the wellboat, and into the sea as a result of discharging potentially infected water. In Scotland, these issues have been acknowledged with the establishment of the Wellboat Technical Standards Working Group in 2013. Amongst its recommendations include: that all marine vessels should log and record their position and the status of their valves; that all water from

16

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dead-haul of fish to processing plants should be treated on-shore; that all water should be filtered prior to discharge into the sea; and that of wellboat transport water be proposed as a priority for the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre.

For their part, the wellboat manufacturers are already working hard to address these issues, and the modern wellboat is a technically sophisticated piece of kit, with a number of features that address issues of biosecurity. For

example, Sølvtrans, the world leading company within transport of live salmon uses a closed valves system, ensuring that when they transport live fish, no water is loaded or discharged to the sea during transportation or unloading.

Its new vessels are also equipped with lice filters with 150 μ for circulated water, which collect lice and other organic materials from the water, minimising the risk of any transported fish being contaminated by diseases, infection, sea lice etc from the nearby fish farms. FF

17

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Under control

Norway – Research Council

“

The environment is more stable and the fish use less energy adapting to it

Under control

Above: Project participants at the centre’s opening. Right: CtrlAQUA scientists.

Photos by Terje Aamodt/Nofima.

Joint approach between scientists and industry to address challenges of closed-containment systems

F 001_ff03.indd 4 06/03/2015 14:28:03

our Norwegian research institutions, two outside Norway and several industry partners from technology and the aquaculture industry have started operations at a centre for innovation in closed-containment systems.

The centre, CtrlAQUA, has been given NOK 200 million and eight years to reach its goal of making closed-containment systems for salmon up to one kilogram.

Innovations in closed-containment, where the salmon is separated from the outside environment by a tight barrier, can be important for the further development of the industry,

helping to address challenges such as sea lice, diseases and escapes, as well as reduce production times.

Closed systems can be land-based, where water is recycled, or sea-based, in which large floating tanks receive clean water from depth.

In CtrlAQUA, the research will deal with both approaches.

The main focus of the centre is innovation in closed-containment systems for the most vulnerable periods of the salmon production cycle, such as the first sea water, post-smolt, phase.

The centre will also contribute to better production control, fish welfare and sustainability

in closed-containment farms. This will happen through the development of new and reliable sensors, minimising environmental impact through recycling of nutrients and reducing the risk of escape, and diseases transmission to wild stocks.

Senior scientist Bendik Fyhn Terjesen, from Nofima, who is the director of the centre, said that closed-containment systems for salmon up to one kilogram have further advantages than simply preventing lice and escapes.

‘We can control the environment in which the fish lives in a closed-containment system.

The environment is more stable and the fish

32

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use less energy adapting to it. This means that the salmon has more energy available for growth and good health.’

Closed systems for strategic phases in salmon farming can help to make the Norwegian vision of an eight-fold growth in value creation from aquaculture possible, and lead to an increased number of jobs and the production of healthy seafood.

In the centre there will be three departments: technology and environment, led by Dr Fyhn Terjesen; preventative fish health, led by Harald Takle, also from Nofima; and fish production and welfare, led by Lars Ebbesson of Uni Research.

CtrlAQUA is one of 17 Centres for Research-Based Innovation (SFI), a major programme created by the Research Council of Norway.

The primary goal of the SFI programme is to strengthen companies’ capacity for innovation, and to develop leading industry relevant research.

Nofima is accompanied by five solid institutions in CtrlAQUA: Uni Research, the University of Bergen, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Freshwater Institute in the US and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The University of Bergen will have principal responsibility for research education at the centre. The total budget for CtrlAQUA will be

”

NOK 196 million, spread over eight years.

Industrial partners from the supplier industry are Krüger Kaldnes AS, Pharmaq Analytiq, Pharmaq AS, Oslofjord Ressurspark AS, Storvik Aqua AS and Aquafarm Equipment AS. Participants from the aquaculture industry are Marine Harvest ASA, Grieg Seafood ASA, Lerøy Vest AS, Cermaq Norway AS, Bremnes Seashore AS, Smøla klekkeri og settefiskanlegg AS, Marine producers Norway AS and Firda sjøfarmer AS. The formal opening by the Research Council took place at the end of May at Nofima, Sunndalsøra. Norwegian fisheries minister Elisabeth Aspaker, present at the ceremony, said the goal of the CtrlAQUA SFI is perfectly compatible with the government’s ambitions for the aquaculture industry.

‘I have great expectations for the achievements of CtrlAQUA. Even though eight years is a long time, it is urgent that we find solutions to reach the goals. CtrlAQUA is an important part of this.’

The director of innovation in the Research Council, Eirik Normann, presented the SFI plaque to Fyhn Terjesen, saying: ‘You have put together a very strong consortium. I want to point out that the committee that evaluated the application was fascinated by the innovation that the concept brings with it, and it believes that the centre will probably produce important innovations within aquaculture.’ FF

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NOFIMA FACTS With 360 employees and customers from 49 different countries, Nofima’s turnover in 2014 was £527 million The company is currently engaged in 620 projects worldwide.

Nofima has several laboratories and pilot plants, which it uses for research, including: BioLab – an accredited contract and research laboratory; NAMAB – a flexible minifactory; and Patogen Pilot Plant – Europe’s first highsecurity production hall.

Nofima carries out research for the fisheries, aquaculture and food industries, including: breeding and genetics; capture-based aquaculture; fish health; and consumer and sensory sciences.

Each year Nofima organises several symposia, courses and seminars in which its scientists share their expertise.

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Opinion – Inside track

Let our voice be

heard

BY NICK JOY

I

have been a fish farmer for a very long time, since the Jurassic era, it feels like. It has been a fantastic career for someone who longed to work outside and remains fascinated by fish.

I joined the industry when boats were decidedly dodgy, feed quality was judged by its colour and practices were a massive learning curve.

The job then, to some extent as now, was multi-disciplined, multi-skilled and required a singularity of focus that suited my obsessive nature.

This intensity has eased as I am not actually involved in the day to day anymore and, as I withdraw from the hubbub, I am noticing things that were obscured by the drama of being very close to the coal face.

This noise is created by people or organisations who for some reason have an axe to grind about our industry.

The trouble is that the noise created by those who criticise how it is done is drowning out those who actually do it.

Let’s look at some facts: • The entire salmon farming industry in Scotland and its impact does not equate to much bigger than one reasonable sized farm, yet it produces more revenue than beef and sheep sales in Scotland for the whole country.

• No persistent impact from any medicine has ever been found.

• The suggested sea lice impact on wild salmonids has been touted by many for many years but the numbers returning still do not demonstrate a difference between declines on the east and west coasts.

• Salmon farming is the mainstay of employment on the west coast of Scotland and is critical to it.

• Now we hear that the decline in common seal numbers is worse on the east coast (where there is no salmon farming) than the west.

All of the above is not news apart from the last. Do we see this reflected in regulations or support for the industry? Of course not! In fact, we see more and more overbearing, overweening regulation.

Apparently, the Highlands and Islands Council is changing its planning department into a new regulatory authority. So much for the streamlining of regulation, which was proposed and offered by our government years ago.

If the above facts are true - and I have noted lately that no one says they aren’t - then it would be reasonable to assume that all the research being done would be working on how to grow the industry. But it’s not.

At the BBSRC and NERC meeting in London last month, there were a tremendous amount of presentations, all very short, giving a flavour of the innovative work being done in aquaculture.

I know this should have made me feel good but it didn’t. It wasn’t the lack of intelligence on show or that the presentations were not well done. It was the paucity of innovation that made me feel sad.

I have tried to break the talks down into categories, so forgive the loose descriptions: Climate/health/warning systems: 64 per cent Carrying capacity/sites: 12 per cent Feed alternatives: 9 per cent Reacting to ‘noise’ (criticism of the industry): 12 per cent Farming: 3 per cent.

Now I know that this does not represent all of the innovation in the industry but what is worrying is the lack of farming innovation and development of new farming technologies and ideas.

66

Opinion - Jan.indd 66

What is “ worrying is the

lack of farming innovation and development of new technologies and ideas

”

I accept that health is a major driver in developing aquaculture and that breeding and so on is critical, but how can we seriously develop an industry when our focus is almost entirely on the negatives.

We only seem to focus on the reasons to stop things, or to evaluate if stopping is best, rather than on how to move forward.

Two thirds of this planet is sea and we have a rising population and a critical need for food.

Aquaculture is one of the best ways to provide it, maybe the only way that does not involve people eating things they would rather not.

Fish is the healthiest food around and we need to work out how to grow it in a sustainable, healthy way.

Learning takes time but we simply have to find ways to empower development rather than constraining it.

But for those people who want more regulation, please allow me to paraphrase the words of a local haulier, living on Mull, at an open meeting on a proposed salmon farm a long time ago.

‘To you who have retired here, for you who don’t live here, to you who think that this may be wrong, I speak for those who need a job on the west coast and for those who know this industry. Let our voice be heard and represented for a change, not yours!’. FF

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

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AQUACULTURE 2016 AQUACULTURE Paris Hotel and Convention Center 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada USA February 22-26, 2016Center Paris Hotel and Convention Las Vegas, Nevada USA February 22-26, 2016 CO-SPONSORS

CO-SPONSORS

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS

American Veterinary Medical Association International Association of Aquaculture America's Tilapia Alliance Economics and Management Aquacultural Engineering Society Latin America & Caribbean Chapter WAS Aquaculture Association of Canada Striped Bass Growers Association Aquaculture Feed Industry Association US Shrimp Farming Association California Aquaculture Association US Trout Farmers Association ASSOCIATE SPONSORS Catfish Farmers of America World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association American VeterinaryAlliance Medical Association Zebrafish International Association of Aquaculture Global Aquaculture Husbandry Association America's Tilapia Alliance Economics and Management In Cooperation with California Aquaculture Association Aquacultural Engineering Society Latin America & Caribbean Chapter WAS Aquaculture Association of Canada Striped Bass Growers Association Aquaculture Feed Industry Association US Shrimp Farming Association California Aquaculture Association US Trout Farmers Association Catfish Farmers of America World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association Global Aquaculture Alliance Zebrafish Husbandry Association

For More Information Contact:

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Conference Manager In Cooperation with California Aquaculture Association P.O. Box 2302 | Valley Center, CA 92082 USA Tel: +1.760.751.5005 | Fax: +1.760.751.5003 For More Information Contact: Email: worldaqua@aol.com | www.was.org Conference Manager P.O. Box 2302 | Valley Center, CA 92082 USA Tel: +1.760.751.5005 | Fax: +1.760.751.5003 Email: worldaqua@aol.com | www.was.org

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