Fish Farmer Magazine July 2018

Fish Farmer VOLUME 41

NUMBER 07

JULY 2018

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Serving worldwide aquaculture since 1977

ENVIRONETS IN ACTION

COMMON GROUND

FEEDING AFRICA

REVOLUTION RESTARTED

How Marine Harvest is tackling gill health problems

John Goodlad looks forward to new salmon talks

Young American on million tonne tilapia mission

World must do better to deliver ambitious goals

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Contents 4-14 4-15 News

What’s happening in aquaculture in the UK and around the world

16-22 16-17 Parliamentary inquiry Industry platform

JENNY HJUL – EDITOR

Fair hearing Get together

Contents – Editor’s Welcome

48-49 40-41 Brussels AquaVision 2018 Salmon market robust Entrepreneurial spirit

50-55 42-43 Brussels AquaVision 2018

New Race processors’ to the top group

The final sessions Movement of eggs

T

HE farming when it was HISsalmon issue didn’t setsector out toinbeScotland, an innovati on told special buttoit be the subject a parliamentary inquiry, embraced the is hard to avoidofdiscussing novel concepts in aquaculture, opportunity this would provide to explain how it operated. whatever the geographical focus, as the industry embraces The had nothing hide and, iftogiven fairchallenges. hearing, could newindustry technology, and newtohusbandry, meeta its address much of the criti cism levelled against it.

Innovation was a main theme of the recent AquaVision, Fish Farmer this view, but at timesSeveral felt that salmon menti oned bysupported most speakers at some stage. young farmers were being drowned out by the noisier elements entrepreneurs brought their radical ideas and inventionsoftothe the angling lobby, had called for the investigation. as thefrom conference in which Stavanger in search of investment andBut support sessions and eventually farmers’ voices many of progressed, the biggest aquaculture companies, whosewere CEOsheard, must we became more optimistiby c. We now believe have been impressed what they heard.that MSPs, perhaps with the excepti onNorwegians of one or two Greens in cahoots with anti Two young told current leaders how they-farming thought campaigners, will, on balance, regard and the industry in almost a favourable the sector should look in the future, you could sense light.

They being will hopefully see that take their the baton passed from onefarmers generati on to theenvironmental next. responsibiliti es seriously and that will only ever invest Collaboration was the other bigbusinesses theme of AquaVision, with callsin growth that is sustainable. from across the world, from Ecuador to Kenya to India, to join If the to committ ee the members, especially those who havesupplies yet to of forces increase producti on of more sustainable visit a salmon farm, would like to learn more about the subject of protein. their inquiry, we have plenty good stories in our May In Scotland, collaborati on isofalso a very relevant topicissue. this Even bett er, they head to Highlands later this month, where month, as acould new group is the formed bringing together wild and they willsalmon meet the aquaculture masse ground. at Scotland’s farmed interests to try industry to build en common We talk biggest fish farming show. to its chairman, John Goodlad, and wish him all the very best in Weformidable will certainly beahead. at Aquaculture UK in Aviemore and look the task forward to seeing many of you there too.

24-27 18-19 SSPO News extra

Meet theinteracti new chief Salmon ons executi group ve

56 46-47 Book review2018 AquaVision Focus cleaner fish Tilapiaon transformati on

28-29 20 Comment Phil Thomas

30 22 BTA

Doug McLeod

57 48-54 Aquaculture UK Feed Introducti New frontion ers

58-59 56-59 Aquaculture Water qualityUK Chris Mitchell Technology updates

32-33 24-25 Shellfi SSPO sh

Janet StatusBrown symbol

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46-47 38-39 Brussels AquaVision 2018 Introduction

94 66 Opinion

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09/05/2018 03/07/2018 18:05:09 09:53:31

United Kingdom News

NEWS...

Healthiest fish yet at Scottish salmon farms Fish vet appointed to SCOTLAND’S two leading salmon farmers, Marine Harvest Scotland and Scottish Sea Farms, have reported a sustained improvement in fish health during the first five months of 2018 with a marked reduction in disease related mortalities.

Figures for both salmon farmers show that the number of fish that died as a result of disease fell by more than 50 per cent between January and May compared with the previous six months.

Disease related mortality is also lower year on year, with Marine Harvest Scotland and Scottish Sea Farms reporting a reduction of 61 per cent and 27 per cent respectively compared with the first six months of 2017.

The improvement

comes as welcome news following a challenging year for some farms owing to warmer than average sea surface temperatures that can encourage marine organisms to thrive.

Both producers have invested in new technologies including environmental data monitoring equipment; underwater camera systems enabling farm-

ers to observe salmon within the pens and respond quickly to any changes in behaviour; and innovative new netting which, has helped eliminate gill disease.

Changes have also been made to farm management strategies.

Both producers are also investing in multi-million pound

state-of-the-art hatcheries which will enable smolts to be grown to a larger, more robust size, thereby shortening their time at sea and lessening the chance of infection.

Marine Harvest Scotland and Scottish Sea Farms have both seen significantly lower lice levels from January to May 2018.

In the case of Marine Harvest, sea lice levels were 49 per cent lower compared with the previous six months, while Scottish Sea Farms were 34 per cent lower.

The results are equally encouraging across the sector as a whole, with Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation figures showing that sea lice levels are at their lowest since July 2013.

Net works: page 30

chair animal charity THE Scottish SPCA has elected Ronnie Soutar

as its new chairman, the first fish vet to hold the post.

Soutar, head of Veterinary Services at Scottish Sea Farms, is one of the country’s most respected fish veterinarians, working with salmon farmers at home and abroad to advance health and welfare.

His career has included two terms as president of the Fish Veterinary Society and he has had a key advisory role in the recently announced Farmed Fish Health Framework.

With a degree in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Soutar worked at a variety of veterinary practices before studying for an MSc in Aquatic Veterinary Studies at Stirling’s world renowned Institute of Aquaculture.

Commenting on his new appointment, Soutar said: ‘To be elected chairperson of the Scottish SPCA is a huge honour.

The charity provides a lifeline service to vulnerable animals the length and breadth of Scotland.’

Right: Ronnie Soutar

Orkney farm wins top M&S prize SCOTTISH Sea Farms’ team at Wyre, Orkney, has been named by M&S as its outstanding producer of the year in the Farming for the Future Awards 2018.

Above: Richard Darbyshire being presented with the Wyre team’s award by Steve McLean, head of Agriculture and Fisheries Sourcing at M&S

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The 1,909-tonne capacity farm, established in 2015, performs a dual role, not only rearing its own salmon from smolt to adulthood, but also acting as a nursery for young salmon headed to neighbouring Eday where conditions are more tidal. Only once the salmon are large enough to thrive are they transferred out to Eday.

This efficiency was one of four awards criteria that set Wyre apart in its category. Judges were equally impressed at how much the team, led

by Phil Boardman who until recently was also farm manager of Eday, had achieved with regards to ethics, the environment and education.

The combined result over the last crop was no escapes, no seals shot, no medicinal bath treatments and low mortalities.

Boardman said: ‘Both farm teams – Wyre and Eday – are proud of the results achieved and rightly so as both have worked hand in hand to

create the best environments in which to rear our salmon.

‘We have a really great mix of people, some of whom are locals while others have moved into the area bringing new skills and knowledge.’

The awards presentation took place at the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston in Edinburgh.

Accepting the award on behalf of the Wyre team was Scottish Sea Farms’ Orkney regional manager, Richard Darbyshire, who said: ‘Scottish Sea Farms sets itself exacting standards and the results show in the quality of our product. M&S have actively encouraged these high standards since day one, however to have them recognised with a Farming for the Future Award provides added motivation to keep seeking new and better ways of doing things.’

Scottish Sea Farms supplies M&S Lochmuir salmon.

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03/07/2018 09:55:15

All the latest industry news from the UK

Marine Harvest man marks 40 years… ..and so does SSF’s salmon ‘godfather’ the Army, but MARINE Harvest he was glad purchasing he had chosen manager Dave fish farming.

McEwan received He said behis 40 years’ lieved working long service in aquaculture award at the now was ‘100 company’s Fort per cent betWilliam offices ter’ for young on June 20. entrants.

McEwan began ‘The techhis career at Above: Dave McEwan (left) and Ewan nology and the Invergarry MacColl (picture Marine Harvest) resources comhatchery and from there moved into the manage- pared to what we had in the past are so different, there’s a lot more ment of freshwater and seawater emphasis on taking away the heavy departments, before switching lifting. There’s a lot of money going more recently to logistics and into making things easier and purchasing. buying the right kit…and there are Colleagues gathered from across more suppliers.’ the company to congratulate McHe said he started on ‘a glamorEwan, who said: ‘The last 40 years ous £1,960 a year’, which nowadays have flown by and my thanks go is close to what people get a month to all my colleagues and family for helping me achieve this milestone.’ if they’re starting out.

McEwan, only the second person He later told Fish Farmer that his in Marine Harvest globally to reach career options after college had inthe 40-year mark, was given his cluded being a silver service waiter award by Ewan MacColl, operations at Inverlochy Castle, working on director of processing and feed. his uncle’s sheep farm, or joining

SCOTTISH Sea Farms’ longest serving employee, Geoff Kidd, has celebrated 40 years with the company and says his love of working with salmon is as strong as ever.

Newly retired Kidd, nicknamed ‘the Godfather’ by managing director Jim Gallagher, joined colleagues past and present for a special dinner at the Argyllshire Gathering Halls in Oban to reflect on a career that has seen the sector evolve from several smaller farms to fewer, larger producers.

Kidd joined the company as a zoology graduate in 1978 when commercial salmon farming was still in its infancy, and progressed from farm assistant at Loch Striven, then Loch Creran, to farm manager of Loch Spelve on Mull – a position he held for over three decades.

During that time, he led his team at Loch Spelve to win ‘Best Finfish Farm’ at the Crown Estate Awards 2010, and was shortlisted for ‘Aquaculture Ambassador’ in 2011. And it was Kidd who pioneered the first full crop of M&S Lochmuir salmon.

He said: ‘Changes in operational scale have led to tremendous

advances in production.The biggest advances, without doubt, have been in fish welfare and staff health and safety.

‘The arrival of vaccines simultaneously improved fish health and reduced use of medicinal treatments, while the arrival of innovative new technologies, such as work boats, wellboats and net cleaning systems, has made the farmer’s role much more about brain than brawn.’

His love of salmon, ‘raising them, putting them to sea and rearing them skilfully and sensitively to be both healthy and tasty, is every bit as strong today as it was when I first started out,’ he said.

Above: Jim Gallagher, managing director of Scottish Sea Farms, with newly retired Geoff Kidd and John Rea, production manager

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03/07/2018 09:55:39

United Kingdom News

Angling body appoints new chief THE Atlantic Salmon Trust has named Mark Bilsby as its new chief executive, replacing Sarah Bayley Slater, who leaves the post after two and a half years.

Bilsby has more than 20 years’ experience as a fisheries manager. He has been the director for the River Dee Trust and Dee District Salmon Fisheries Board since 2005, and also spent a decade as a senior fisheries biologist for the Western Isles Fisheries Trust.

Prior to that he worked with the National Rivers Authority and at a private environmental consultancy.

One of his first responsibilities in his new role will be to oversee the Missing Salmon Project, a tagging initiative which will see the installation of a 65-mile wide ‘acoustic array’ across the Moray Firth in a bid to determine why Atlantic salmon numbers are

dropping so rapidly.

‘There has never been a more exciting time to join this organisation – or a more important time,’ he said. ‘The wild Atlantic salmon is in serious danger and we have a crucial role to play in safeguarding its future.’

The Missing Salmon Project was launched on the River Garry in April, with the Atlantic Salmon Trust saying the study will provide much needed data on what is preventing salmon smolts getting out into the sea.

Data to be gathered will give fishery managers and NGOs the information they need to call for policies that will protect the iconic species, according to groups who have pledged support to the project.

Above: Mark Bilsby

Cargill executive to head IFFO IFFO president Eduardo GoyIFFO, the Marine Ingredients coolea welcomed the appointment Organisation, has announced the saying: ‘The IFFO board is thrilled appointment of a former Cargill to welcome Petter to the IFFO and Ewos executive as its new family.With his extensive manadirector general. gerial experience in strategic and Norwegian Petter Martin Johanprocurement roles, Petter’s work nessen replaces Andrew Mallison with multi stakeholders across our and will take up the post from industry, and his already close relaSeptember 3 in IFFO’s London tionship with IFFO, will make for a headquarters.

Johannessen was previously global winning formula in this important business director for Risk and Man- role.’

Johannessen said: ‘I am excited agement Sourcing at Cargill and, to be joining such a professional before that, supply chain director organisation and working with the and global sourcing and purchasing IFFO team in support of this fascilead at Ewos.

While at Ewos, he worked closely nating and dynamic industry.

‘IFFO’s in a unique position by with IFFO and presented on behalf representing a diverse cross secof the feed sector at the IFFO tion of businesses from the annual conferences. aquaculture and animal Johannessen has also worked at PWC and Kavli Holding. feed industries.

‘I look forward to He holds a diploma in incontinuing Andrew’s ternational marketing and a degree in business adminislegacy.’

Mallison leaves in July tration from the Norwegian and will relocate to the School of Management. He US in his new role as the has also studied petroGlobal Aquaculture leum economy, Alliance’s exececonomics and utive director, science at the taking over from University of Wally Stevens.

Bergen.

Above: Petter Martin Johannessen

Excellent awards for Scottish salmon THE Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) won the Food Service Product of the Year for its Native Hebridean Salmon at the Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards 2018.

The company was also highly commended in the category of Export Business of the Year.

SSC’s innovative broodstock programme has been in development for a number of years and takes the company’s commitment to Scottish provenance once step further by not just guaranteeing Scottish provenance, but Herbridean origin

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and island heritage.

Welcoming the news of the win, SSC chief executive Craig Anderson said the award was ‘testament

Above: Host Simon Rimmer, Fiona Larkin and Su Cox (SSC), and sponsor Ceri Ritchie (Connect Local)

to the hard work and investment that SSC has made to Native Hebridean’.

Meanwhile, Loch Fyne Oysters cele-

brated its 40th year of trading by winning the top prize in the Fish and Seafood category of the awards for its Bradan Orach smoked salmon.

Unlike other smoked salmon products, Bradan Orach is cold smoked for up to 24 hours longer, which results in a fuller, richer flavour.

Loch Fyne Oysters managing director Cameron Brown said: ‘Bradan Orach is Gaelic for ‘golden salmon’.

Smoking the fish for double the amount of time gives a different dryer, meatier texture and a good, strong smokiness. Using

shavings from retired whisky casks for smoking makes it a truly Scottish product.

‘I would like to thank the smokehouse staff who make sure every kiln of salmon is smoked to perfection. Their years of experience was recognised by the judging panel and I am delighted that this traditional recipe got the recognition it deserves.’

Loch Fyne Oysters was also shortlisted for Primary Producer of the Year and Export Business of the Year.

The annual awards took place ceremony at Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) on June 7, with more than 740 guests.

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03/07/2018 09:56:42

All the latest industry news from the UK

Salmon exports to China take off ‘This new direct SCOTLAND’S largservice allows us est salmon farmer to reach China is taking advantage even faster than of the first direct usual which is a flight from Scotland huge advantage. to China.

As global demand Marine Harvest for our salmon sent 161 boxes (apcontinues to grow proximately 3,300 it is great to have kilos) of fresh salmadditional freight on on the Hainan options on our Airways inaugural doorstep.’ flight to Beijing Until now, from Edinburgh last Marine Harvest month. has used flights Georgina Wright, from Heathrow or head of sales at Above: Direct flights from Edinburgh to Beijing indirect flights via Marine Harvest, the Middle East to said: ‘It’s extremely transport salmon to China, one of its top fitting that one of Scotland’s top exports four export markets. is using the very first direct flight from In 2017, the firm exported 32,000 tonnes Edinburgh to China.

‘Getting our salmon to market as quickly of salmon to more than 20 countries worldwide, including 3,500 tonnes to as possible is key to our success when China. exporting to markets all over the world.

Benchmark reports earnings up in first half

BENCHMARK Holdings reported a reduced operating loss in the six months ended March 31, 2018, from £6.7 million to £6 million.

The aquaculture health, genetics and advanced nutrition business increased revenue by nine per cent to £75.7 million (H1 2017: £69.2 million).

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 91 per cent to £6.3 million (H1 2017: £3.3 million) driven by revenue growth in higher margin nutrition and genetics products, and despite a £2.1 million reduction in the animal health division.

The increase in net debt to £41.3 million was as expected, said the company, primarily due to £15.1 million capital expenditure, which included investment associated with the field trials of Benchmark’s new sea lice treatment.

The advanced nutrition division saw 16 per cent growth, driven by high demand for specialist diets and health products in most markets and particularly in India.

There was also continued demand for genetics products, with revenue up 11 per cent. already know that Malcolm Pye, CEO of Benchmark, said: both sectors will be ‘The group has delivered good organic engaging with the revenue growth and improving profitprocess in a positive ability on an adjusted basis, while we and enabling mancontinued to invest in our pipeline of new ner.’ products and infrastructure.

Julie Hesketh‘The outlook for the group is positive as Laird, chief executhe drivers for our business are stronger tive of the Scottish than ever before, with continued growth Salmon Producers’ in aquaculture and increasing recognition Organisation, said: from consumers, producers and regula‘John’s experience in tors of the need for sustainable solutions the fisheries sector to enable future growth. will undoubtedly ‘Overall, we remain on track to achieve bring valuable guidour expectations for the current year, and ance when considare confident of Benchmark’s capacity to ering the complex generate attractive returns in the years to and varied pressures come.’ on wild salmonid populations.’

Dr Alan Wells, chief executive of Fisheries Management Scotland, said: ‘The need to make substantive progress on addressing interactions between farmed and wild fish has been apparent throughout the recent committee inquiries.’

Charles’ fishery advisor to chair salmon body A NEW ‘salmon interactions’ body that will bring together the farmed and wild salmon sectors is to be chaired by Prince Charles’ advisor on fisheries, John Goodlad.

The group, announced by rural economy minister Fergus Ewing last month at the Aquaculture UK show in Aviemore as part of Scotland’s Farmed Fish Health Framework, will include representatives from both sides of the salmon debate.

Goodlad, as fisheries advisor to Prince Charles’ International Sustainability Unit, has been chairing high level talks between salmon farming companies and the angling lobby for almost two years.

The new salmon interactions group,

Above: John Goodlad

jointly established

by Ewing and environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham, will focus on the decline of wild stocks, which have fallen on both the east and west coasts of Scotland.

Goodlad was the voice of the Shetland fishing industry for many years as CEO of the Shetland Fishermen’s

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Association. He has also been a fish farmer, currently chairs two fisheries bodies – Fisheries Innovation Scotland and the Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group.

Ewing praised Goodlad, saying he would bring ‘a wealth of experience’ to the role.

The aim was to ‘ensure a sustainable and thriving future for both farmed and wild salmon’.

Goodlad said: ‘I

It’s good to talk: Page 18

Above: Malcolm Pye, CEO of Benchmark

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03/07/2018 09:57:09

European News

NEWS...

Norway fish farmers bid millions for licences

Above: Interest in new licences was intense

NORWAY’S fish farmers have spent tens of billions of kroners at auction buying new salmon production licences as a prelude to a major expansion of the industry.

The result is that 160 coastal communities will receive at least NOK 2 billion (almost £200 million) in development funding.

The Oslo government decreed two years ago that those communities where fish farms are based should benefit directly from any new growth plans through a dedicated Aquaculture Fund, from which money is distributed every September.

The government also introduced a traffic

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light system to decide which areas should be the focus of any expansion.

The auction was held in Bergen over three days in June and interest was intense. Licences capable of producing 15,000 tonnes were up for auction and two thirds of that allocation was snapped up in under two days.

As expected, it was the larger farming companies which made most of the running. For example, Marine Harvest shelled out well over NOK 247 million to buy licences capable of producing 2,960 tonnes.

Norway Royal Salmon and Cermaq spent at least NOK 115

US boosts Norwegian salmon exports

HIGH salmon prices continued to drive up Norwegian seafood exports last month, the most recent figures show. Overseas sales totalled 165,000 tonnes, netting the country’s fish farmers and fishermen NOK 8.5 billion. Volumes were up by 12 per cent and the value by four per cent.

Asbjørn Warvik Rørtveit, analyst at the Norwegian Seafood Council, said: ‘With an average price of NOK 73.73 per kilo of fresh whole salmon, we experienced the highest monthly average price for salmon we have registered in May.’ He said the high prices were driven by strong demand from around the world, and the United States in particular, along with a still weak kroner when set against the euro.

May salmon exports hit 81,000 tonnes and were worth NOK 6.1 billion, almost 75 per cent of the country’s total seafood earnings. Salmon exports were up by NOK 851 million or 16 per cent compared to May last year. The average price per kilo has risen from NOK 69.76 to NOK 73.3 in the space of 12 months. who were capable million and NOK 200 Once again, Poland, Denmark (both major of handling the new million respectively. processing countries) and France were the larggrowth.

SalMar, which has est recipients of Norwegian salmon in May, but Trade minister Roy been growing at a sales to the US are growing fast and were up by remarkable pace, put Angelvik said he was NOK 82 million or 24 per cent on May 2017. pleased that salmon up NOK 214 million Fisheries minister Per Sandberg said: ‘Amerfor 1,315 new produc- farmers were showing icans are eating salmon like never before, and such faith in their tion licences.

I think it is because salmon from Norway is industry by spending But one of the bigknown to be free from antibiotics and sustaingest spenders was the a large amount of able. relatively small family money to develop ‘Growth in the United States shows the importheir businesses. firm of Lovundlak, tance of the authorities and industry working The auction was also which paid NOK 466 together to achieve good market access. But attended by Norway’s million to buy 1,850 we cannot rest on our laurels…ensuring good fisheries minister tonnes of potential framework conditions for trade will be crucial to Per Sandberg, who production in the achieving growth in the future.’ expressed similar deHelgeland and Bodø There was also good news for Norway’s trout light at the outcome. area. farmers, with exports ‘The government Company chief totalling 3,300 tonnes, Jacob Palmer Meland will facilitate growth worth NOK 316 million. in the aquaculture said it was good to The volume increased industry,’ he said. know that a large by 54 per cent, while ‘We are now conductpart of the money the value rose by NOK invested would go to ing an auction of new 87 million or 38 per salmon permits which those communities cent. will strengthen the where farming will economy of our fishtake place. LovundRight: Asbjørn Warvik ing communities and lak, he added, had Rørtveit provide more jobs.’ many skilled staff

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03/07/2018 10:00:53

All the latest industry news from Europe

Iceland fish farming up 38 per cent tion, adding that a number of companies have expansion in mind. This is also likely to attract a number of new companies to fish farming in Iceland.

One such company, Arctic Fish, which is part owned by Norway Royal Salmon, held a public meeting with a number of residents south of the Westfords recently, in which it outlined plans for increasing salmon production in various parts of the region.

The company said the planned investment should eventually net 32 billion Icelandic kroners (£225 million) a year, creating 350 to 400 direct jobs, plus a number of indirect jobs, which will have a considerable impact in a country with a population of just 350,000 people.

The developments will be in areas which have lost or seen a reduction in their traditional fish processing industries so the development FISH farming production in Iceland has should help to restore economic wellbeing. increased by 38 per cent during the past 12 Sigurdur Pétursson, business development months. The annual figure is now 27,776 tonnes director at Arctic Fish, outlined plans for a water and that is expected to grow significantly over and waste re-usable system, which he described the new two to three years. as unique and one of the most advanced in the The Icelandic Food Administration says salmon world. and trout remain the two largest species.

‘We can actually re-use 99 per cent of our Salmon production increased by a third on the water,’ he said. The company also has ASC cerprevious 12 months, reaching 11,265 tonnes. tification which, he added, was one of the best The administration predicts that as salmon known environmental and welfare certifications prices continue to rise, then so will producfor aquaculture.

Feed group raises the sustainability bar DANISH feed group BioMar has reached four out of five of its sustainability goals for raw materials three years ahead of schedule, and it has now decided to raise the bar further and has set new targets for 2020.

The company’s Integrated Sustainability Report, which is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, looks at the role of traceability and data analytics in the future of sustainable aquaculture. Feed comprises about 80 per cent of the impact in raising fish.

In 2015, BioMar addressed the sustainability of its raw materials by setting targets for the use of certified products. These key performance indicators included 100 per cent certification of soy protein, krill and palm oil, and 70 per cent of all fish meal and fish oil. While soy remains on track to achieve its 2020 objective, all other ingredients have met or exceeded expectations.

BioMar will now raise the bar on targets for fishmeal and fish oil to 80 per cent certified material by 2020.

NEW

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European News

Danish feed firm enters new territory

Above: (Left to right) Henrik T. Halken, Hans Erik Bylling, Anders Bylling and Carsten Jørgensen

EXECUTIVES from Danish feed company Aller Aqua found themselves in Monaco recently for the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 competition.

Hans Erik Bylling, CEO and owner of Aller Aqua, his son Anders C. Bylling (CEO of Aller Aqua Qingdao), and co-owners Henrik T. Halken and Carsten Jørgensen, were there to compete against 46 countries in the event, which is described as the Oscars for business people.

‘I know fish feed is not the most sexy product, but when you look at what we can achieve together with our customers and the aquaculture sector as a whole, it suddenly gets very interesting,’ said Hans Erik Bylling.

‘It is quite an experience to participate with so many skilled business people, all with amazing stories. We have learnt a lot, and we got many new contacts. We have returned to the office in Aller feeling inspired.

‘We are also pleased with the positive publicity, for us as a company, but also for the

aquaculture sector as a whole.

‘I hope that the increased focus on aquaculture will open the public’s eyes to the fact that aquaculture is a sustainable way of producing meat. We use fewer resources than any other meat production.’

He said he did not need to win the competition to feel proud of the result. He is already proud of the Southern Danish and the Danish National Entrepreneur of the Year awards won recently.

And he said it had been interesting being part of the glamorous final in Monaco, far removed from everyday life at Aller.

Hans Erik Bylling won the Danish competition based on the company’s fast growth over the last few years, the positive work with UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the entrepreneurial spirit in the company.

Winner of World Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 was Rubens Menin from Brazil, owner of MRV Engenharia, a real estate company with 24,000 employees.

Saudis consider seafood flights to Norway SAUDI Arabia is considering whether to launch flights to Norway to meet growing demand among the country’s population for seafood, especially salmon.

It is the latest in a series of similar moves by a number of countries which are turning Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport into the world’s busiest air seafood hub.

Seafood shipments through the airport increased by 35 per cent last year to a total of 185,000 tonnes.

Its owner, Avinor, has announced plans for a huge new seafood terminal able to handle around 300,000 tonnes a year – or around 1,600 tonnes a day. The German logistics giant DHL is already flying salmon direct from Oslo to Shanghai and Seoul.

Worldwide demand for Norwegian farmed salmon is increasing at a fast pace, with China, Japan and South Korea leading the pack.

But seafood is also growing in popularity in the Middle East and at the recent Nordic Air Cargo Symposium in Stockholm, Rainer Muller, European regional director of Saudia Airlines Cargo, said his company was now looking at launching a service, starting in the Middle East and calling at as yet unnamed points in central Europe before flying into Norway and then on to New York.

Muller stressed it was still not yet a done deal. The airline would need to carry out a feasibility study and look at a number of issues before making a decision.

And he also said that for such a service to be economic it could not just carry fish. Other cargoes would probably be necessary, hence the stops in Europe.

Above: Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport

Dutch barge designed for delousing in Canada DUTCH boatyard Neptune is to build a salmon delousing barge equipped with a Hydrolicer for Cermaq Canada.

Neptune will build the 31m long barge – called a Euro Special Purpose Pontoon – at its yard in Aalst in the Netherlands, with delivery scheduled for Q1 2019.

Fish delousing will be carried out using Hydrolicer equipment from the Norwegian company of the same name. This technique, developed in cooperation with CFlow Fish Handling, uses seawater under pressure to gently dislodge the fish lice. The Hydrolicer system can handle 50 tonnes of fish per treatment line.

Cermaq’s vessel will be initially installed with four lines, with space for an additional two if required. The British Columbia based farmer has 28 sea sites around the coast of Vancouver Island.

Neptune has already built a Hydrolicer barge,

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prioritise their tasks effectively – and focus fully on the fish.’

The pontoon will be integrated with a fish grader. This will enable Cermaq to grade the fish into two sizes immediately after delicing and deliver them back to different pens. It will also be possible to deliver graded fish direct to wellboat.

This is the first time that a Hydrolicer operation will include size grading at the same time and it will be a very useful addition for the farmers, delivered to a Norwegian customer last year. said a Hydrolicer spokesman.

Paul Kriesels of Neptune Marine said: ‘It is a Cermaq Canada’s crews will not only work on great example of the cooperation between Hydro- the vessel, but they will also sleep on board. licer, Cflow and Neptune – a combination that has Neptune will therefore be making the living a proven track record with excellent production accommodation as comfortable as possible, as figures. We have designed this [latest] vessel so well as ensuring that the vessel is self-sufficient. that fish handling operations and the control of To accomplish this independence from shore ship’s systems can be performed from one oper- based supplies, the vessel will have water makator’s chair. This will allow Cermaq personnel to ing and energy generation capacity.

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

03/07/2018 10:02:07

All the latest industry news from Europe

Falcon takes danger out of diving NORWAY’S aquaculture industry will see the Saab Seaeye Falcon robotic vehicle take on an extended role following the merger of two major aquaculture support companies, KB Dykk and AQS. With 23 service vessels and more than 60 divers, the new enlarged group becomes the second biggest aquaculture support organisation in Norway, and the country’s largest diving operation.

Ola Krylstad, managing director of KB Dykk, said he chose the Falcon, the world’s top selling robotic vehicle in its class, because ‘we heard very good things about the Falcon’.

It is easy to maintain, and with no thruster shaft seals to service or inspect, it is ideal for aquaculture operations.

Krylstad also welcomes the added diver safety and efficiency the Falcon brings to diving operations. It can reduce dive time and improve safety by pinpointing and examining locations of interest before the diver goes down, then during the diving operation, keep a watchful eye – and save more dive time by transporting tools and parts back and forth.

The Falcon can go to places too hazardous for divers, where the depth of water and strength of current are too dangerous for them to operate.

Along with diver support, Krylstad said that his 300m and 1,000m depth rated Falcons undertake a range of tasks including inspecting nets, moorings and floats.

Marine jobs growth in Ireland IRELAND has seen a 16 per cent growth in marine employment, boosted by strong performance in the aquaculture, sea fisheries, shipping and marine tourism industries.

The direct economic value of Ireland’s ocean economy now stands at €2 billion or approximately one per cent of GDP, which represents a 21 per cent increase on 2015 figures.

Fisheries minister Michael Creed welcomed recent positive growth trends and told delegates at the annual Our Ocean Wealth summit in Galway last month that it represented a ‘joined up approach to growing Ireland’s blue economy’.

‘The 2017 estimates suggest that our blue economy continues to grow at a faster pace than the general economy,’ he said.

‘A really encouraging statistic is the growth in employment for the marine sector which has risen from 27,888 (FTEs) in 2015 to an estimated 32,509 (FTEs) in 2017, an increase of 16.6 per cent.’

The summit

forms a key part of the government’s integrated plan for Ireland’s marine sector and brings together national and international expert speakers, industry leaders, business development agencies and the Irish business and marine research community.

This year’s discussions focused on the overall theme of ‘Investing in Marine Ireland’.

Above: Fishmongers in Cork City, Ireland

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Above: Top selling Falcon

Satellites to boost farm communications NORWAY is planning to improve internet coverage in the Arctic north, where many of its fish farms and fishing communities are located.

The industry says broadband coverage in the region is poor and unstable. The government now wants Norwegian satellites to make broadband communications available in the Arctic.

So Space Norway is hoping to launch two satellites in 2022 that will give round-the-clock coverage.

‘Fast, stable internet is important to anyone operating in the High North, whether in shipping, defence, fisheries or research,’ said trade and industry minsiter Torbjørn Røe Isaksen.

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03/07/2018 10:02:53

World News

NEWS...

First Nations get veto over BC salmon farm sites

Above: Fish farm in British Columbia

SALMON farmers in British Columbia will require First Nations consent over tenures, in new rules announced last month.

The effective veto granted to indigenous communities goes well beyond existing leg-

islation that requires farm companies to consult First Nations groups over farm sites on their lands.

The new requirements establish key criteria for tenures past 2022.

‘The challenges facing our wild salmon

have been ignored for far too long,’ said Lana Popham, BC agriculture minister and an outspoken opponent of salmon farming.

‘That’s why we are putting in place a new approach to provide clarity and outline our

expectations moving forward for a sustainable industry that protects wild salmon, embraces reconciliation, and provides good jobs.’

The province of BC will grant Land Act tenures only to fish farm operators who have satisfied Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) that their operations will not adversely impact wild salmon stocks, and who have negotiated agreements with the First Nations in whose territory they propose to operate.

A court ruling in 2009 clarified that the federal government had the exclusive jurisdiction for regulating fisheries, including fish farms.

The year 2022 aligns with the current renew-

al date of the majority of licences issued by the DFO. Operations with expired provincial tenures, or tenures that expire before June 2022, may operate with month-to-month tenures.

In addition to aligning with the expiry date of the majority of federal fish licences, the Province will give notice of the change in expectations to fish farm operators.

This will give them time to adapt their operations to DFO requirements, strengthen their relationships with First Nations, and make investment decisions.

Meanwhile, discussions are continuing, to resolve concerns regarding specific

farms in the Broughton Archipelago.

Not all indigenous communities are against salmon farms.

Marine Harvest has 15 formal agreements with BC First Nations, some going back 20 years.

‘Marine Harvest has a 20-year track record of building partnerships with First Nations on BC’s coast and will continue to work respectfully and in a positive manner,’ said Vincent Erenst, Marine Harvest Canada managing director.

Farm raised salmon generates more than $1.5 billion towards the BC economy and over 6,600 jobs. About 20 per cent of the people working directly for salmon farm companies are First Nations.

US seafood imports at record high AMERICANS ate more imported seafood last year than at any time in the past, new figures show.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which monitors and regulates the nation’s fishing and aquaculture sector, said seafood imports hit record levels in 2017.

The total volume was six billion pounds, worth $21.5 billion. Conversely, the US exported 3.6 billion pounds of fish and fishery products worth $6 billion.

Americans have been increasing their consumption of high value seafood such as Norwegian Above: Gavin Gibbons salmon over the past year and two UK companies, Seachill and Young’s, have successfully entered the market selling British seafood favourites.

But the US administration has been actively working to cut down on imports of all types – hence the talks of a trade war.

It is being reported that the commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, who heads the federal agency that includes NOAA, has identified reducing the deficit as a priority for the government.

Senior politicians in Oslo are also quietly worried that a more aggres-

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sive ‘America first’ policy could eventually affect its exports to the US. It is thought to be one reason why Norwegian aquaculture companies have begun investing heavily in North America with new fish farm projects.

These include plans by Nordic Aquafarms to build one of the world’s largest land based salmon farms in Belfast, Maine.

Meanwhile, as the trade war between Washington and Beijing hots up, China has said it will impose a 25 per cent tariff on US seafood exports, which is worrying major fishing states such as Alaska.

But National Fisheries Institute spokesman Gavin Gibbons has urged caution by Washington, saying: ‘While US fishermen would love to grow its commercial fisheries, it is important to note that domestic and imported seafood are both important parts of the supply chain and support thousands of American jobs.’

There was not enough fish in US waters to meet current demand, he argued.

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

03/07/2018 10:12:34

World News

Global salmon farming on the rise – ISFA GLOBAL salmon production is increasing rapidly, both in scope and in the number of jobs it is creating, reports the industry organisation Seafood Norway. And it is also continuing to develop at a sustainable rate.

Seafood Norway cites the latest figures from the International Salmon Farmers’ Association (ISFA) which show an annual output equivalent to 17.5 billion salmon meals, produced by a workforce of 132,000 people in coastal communities around the world.

ISFA has recently launched a new report entitled Sustaining Communities and Feeding in connection with the World Day of the Sea. ISFA president Trond Davidsen said: ‘There is no doubt that world salmon production is becoming increasingly important.

‘This report gives us the opportunity to point out the role of salmon production in the debate around a sustainable sea. The number of aquaculture growers increases in a world where the ocean is still being pointed out as an important source of food production. Salmon production gives minimal footprint.’

The report shows that aquaculture producers generate 17.5 billion meals a year from just 0.00008 per cent of the world’s oceans. In addition, the annual value of production is over $15 billion.

Davidsen said that whether you eat salmon

Above: Salmon farm, Norway

smoked, grilled or in sushi, it is most likely to have been produced by an ISFA member.

The report points to developments in aquaculture production in recent years, as well as the challenges posed by an ever increasing population and the need for new, innovative methods to produce food.

ISFA launched its first global report in 2015, which that year showed an annual output of 14.8 billion meals and a value of $10 billion. Since then the number of jobs in the industry has risen by more than 10,000.

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03/07/2018 10:13:24

World News

Aquaculture driving NZ seafood exports NEW Zealand’s export earnings from seafood are on the rise, with aquaculture leading the way, the country’s fisheries minister, Stuart Nash, said last month.

The latest New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries’ Situation and Outlook report predicts New Zealand’s seafood export earnings will grow from (NZ) $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion by June 2022.

‘Aquaculture is set to be the main driver for the forecast growth, thanks largely to increased mussel harvests, and higher prices as demand continues to grow in key markets,’ said the minister ‘We expect hatchery bred spat to be a boon for mussel production. We are already seeing better mussels as a result of hatchery spat produced through the SPATnz Primary Growth Partnership programme.

‘We are also seeing salmon production in-

creasing, with three new farms operating in the Marlborough Sounds.

‘Aquaculture export earnings are forecast to reach $430 million this year and reach nearly $600 million in 2022.

‘Export earnings for New Zealand’s wild capture fish products are expected to reach $1.4 billion this year and climb to $1.5 billion

in 2022.

‘We expect to see higher prices as a result of more people wanting to eat fish and reduced global supply due to China’s plans to reduce its catch.’

He said the environmental credibility of New Zealand’s seafood products would be a vital factor in any export success.

‘The Marine Stewardship Council has certified many of our fisheries as sustainable.

Further certification of this kind will support export prices.

‘Innovative approaches to harvesting will also play their role. This government’s recent regulation changes have allowed the use of innovative trawl technology to allow more precise fishing and to produce high quality products such as those under the new Tiaki brand.’

Above: New Zealand mussels

Salmon could be as big as dairy, says NZKS boss The salmon industry could be as big as the New Zealand dairy industry by 2050, and at a fraction of the environmental cost, according to New Zealand King Salmon boss Grant Rosewarne.

The NZ King Salmon chief executive looked at Norway for ‘what could be’ in salmon aquaculture, following his visit to Stavanger for AquaVision 2018, the Marlborough Express reported on June 17.

The Norwegians had adopted a national policy of increasing their second largest industry five-fold before 2050 and wanted salmon farming to replace their $70 billion oil and gas industry.

‘As farming situations go, this is one of the best outcomes you’re going to get of any farming method for animals in the world,’ Rosewarne said. ‘Our impact on the environment is an order of magnitude less [than dairy].’

The claims were made in his presentation to Marlborough District Council during its long-term plan submissions.

In 2018, the Ministry for Primary Industries projected the dairy industry would have an export revenue of $16.6 billion, which was 39 per cent of New Zealand’s Above: New Zealand King Salmon CEO Grant Rosewarne (left) at AquaVision 2018 in Stavanger total primary industry export revenue. Salmon aquaculture had export revenues of $98 million.

Rosewarne said they could remove New Zealand’s $2.8 billion trade Rosewarne drew parallels with the wine industry in Marlborough, the deficit with just 80 surface hectares of farms. They currently operated potential of which also wasn’t fully understood in its infancy, he said. with 17 surface hectares.

‘The potential [of wine] wasn’t always recognised, and it took some And he said if their short-term predictions were met they intended to time for people to embrace that industry.’ create 280 jobs in the Marlborough region.

Rosewarne said salmon aquaculture could ‘easily exceed the size of the When asked how NZ King Salmon planned to achieve this when there New Zealand wine industry’, according to their calculations. was an ‘acute labour shortage in Marlborough’, Rosewarne said they In the submission, he admitted their farming techniques changed the could out-offer other employers in the region. natural landscape, but said the change was an increase in biodiversity.

‘We’re a wealthy company and we can just pay more money.’

‘This is the only farming method that I know of where you get greater The company posted $25 million in annual profit last year biodiversity.’

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www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

03/07/2018 10:14:21

All the latest industry news from around the world

Fish oils most effective against cancer Aquaculture world heads to Montpellier THE World Aquaculture Society and European Aquaculture Society joint event in Montpellier in August has attracted more than 150 exhibitors as well as a line-up of top European scientists and producers.

To be held over five days, from August 25-29, AQUA2018 will feature parallel conference sessions, held in the Corum Convention Centre, Montpellier.

Delegates will also

OMEGA-3 oils derived from fish pack a stronger punch than other sources such as flaxseed when it comes to cancer prevention, according to a first ever study by a leading Canadian research university.

Professor David Ma from the University of Guelph, near Toronto in Ontario, said he has discovered that marine based omega-3s, of which salmon is a rich source, are eight times more effective at inhibiting tumour development and growth.

The professor, who works in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences at Guelph, explained: ‘This study is the first to compare the cancer fighting potency of plant versus marine derived omega-3s on breast tumour development.

‘There is evidence that both omega-3s from plants and marine sources are protective against cancer, and we wanted to determine which form is more effective.’

There are three types of omega-3 fatty acids: alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

ALA is plant based and found in such edible seeds as flaxseed and in oils, such as soy, canola and

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hemp oil. EPA and DHA are found in marine life, such as fish, algae and phytoplankton.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, involved feeding the different types of omega-3s to mice with a highly aggressive form of human breast cancer called HER-2. This affects 25 per cent of women and has a poor prognosis.

Ma exposed the mice to either the plant based or the marine based omega-3s, beginning in utero.

‘The mice were exposed to the different omega-3s even before tumours developed, which allowed us to compare how effective the fatty acids are at prevention.

‘It’s known that EPA and DHA can inhibit breast tumour growth, but no one has looked directly at how effective these omega-3s are compared to ALA.’ Professor Ma found overall exposure to marine based omega-3s reduced the size of the tumours by 60 to 70 per cent and the number of tumours by 30 per cent.

Conversely, higher doses of the plant based fatty acid were required to deliver the same impact as the marine based omega-3s.

have the opportunity to visit the largest research infrastructure dedicated to mariculture in France in Palavas-les-Flots, a coastal city near Montpellier.

Speakers including EU commissioner Karmenu Vella and the FAO’s Árni Mathiesen, along with high-level representatives from a number of leading aquaculture countries such as China, Norway, Thailand,

Ecuador and Africa, will address delegates at a special press conference on Monday, August 27, at the convention centre.

And during the follow-up reception, guests will be able to sample selected aquaculture products prepared by chef Jacques Pourcel.

For more information about the conference and the trade show visit www. marevent.com

Above: Montpellier

Verlasso expansion in Magallanes SALMON farmer AquaChile will produce its premium Verlasso brand in the Magallanes region, having acquired two companies in the area, at the southern tip of South America.

AquaChile bought Salmones Magallanes and Pesquera Eden last month for an estimated $255 million, with licences for 26 farms.

Victor Hugo Pucji, chairman of AquaChile, said the deal would allow AquaChile to farm bigger salmon at lower biological risks.

‘As Magallanes is a region with less salmon farming and more growth restriction, it will be possible to further develop the sustainable image of the salmon grown there,’ he said.

The use of antibiotics in Magallanes is much lower than in other farming regions in Chile because of the low concentration of fish and the colder temperatures.

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03/07/2018 10:14:44

Industry platform – Hendrix Genetics

BY NEIL MANCHESTER

Unlevel playing field Recent reports about the movement of eggs between Norway and Scotland have been used by antisalmon farm campaigners to undermine the industry. Here, the managing director of Scotland’s largest independent salmon egg producer sets the record straight

L

ANDCATCH was formed in 1980 in Argyll and quickly established a strain of Atlantic salmon using genetic material from several sources, predominantly Sunndalsøra, Mowi and some Namsen. In addition, some Scottish wild strains were introduced in the very early years but phased out over time in favour of the higher performing lines.

This mass selection programme proved highly effective, but in 1996 the company moved to a family based breeding programme and, under the name Landcatch Natural Selection, led the world in the development of quantitative genetics. In 2007, Landcatch was the first company to identify a QTL for IPN (infectious pancreatic necrosis) resistance.

The move into genomic selection followed shortly after, with good progress seen in important traits such as sea lice, PD (pancreas disease) and AGD (amoebic gill disease).

A similar programme with the Landcatch strain was established in Chile in the 1990s to support the significant trade in Landcatch eggs from Scotland, and that line is still going today, with ever increasing market share as a reflection of superior performance.

However, the ISA (infectious salmon anemia) crisis in 2007 in Chile closed the borders to imported eggs (apart from small numbers from Iceland in the off-season), and Landcatch in Scotland struggled to re-establish itself in its domestic market.

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Scotland has a relatively small production volume of Atlantic salmon, which in the last 13 years has remained static while Norwegian production has tripled, and in order to justify the expense of a full blown breeding programme it was clear that new markets had to be found.

Norway had always been an occasional market for the Landcatch eggs and smolts, with the last batches of eggs delivered in 2009.

However, the new ownership of Landcatch, Hendrix Genetics, decided that to be a major player in salmon breeding and egg production, it was crucial not only to access the Norwegian market but to establish a breeding operation in the country and Below: Facilities in the top develop the strain to suit all the regions of Norway. three salmon producing In 2015, an application was made to the Norwecountries. Opposite: gian government for Hendrix Genetics to establish Choices needed in egg an Atlantic salmon breeding operation in Norway, selection. using nucleus genetic material from the Landcatch programme in Scotland.

Part of the submission included confirmation of two partner producers, plus the conditional purchase of a land based hatchery and a capital programme for development. Also included were details of the very comprehensive R&D programme operated on the Landcatch strain, and how this would be further adapted for the Norwegian market.

First to respond was the Norwegian Fisheries Directorate, with an enthusiastic and positive recommendation from their Broodstock Committee that broodstock licences be issued (two initially, increasing to four as soon as production biomasses necessitated them).

The recommendation included comments about the impressive level of R&D and genetic development within the Hendrix Genetics breeding programme, and also how the added diversity of a new genetic strain would add a competitive advantage to the Norwegian industry by offering

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03/07/2018 10:16:00

Unlevel playing field greater choices in egg strain selection (since just two suppliers is considered a risk to the industry).

(The two independent salmon breeding companies in Norway are Aquagen, owned by German EW Group, and Salmobreed, owned by British company, Benchmark Holdings. Apart from this, there are two other strains managed by integrated producers for internal use only: Marine Harvest/ Mowi, and SalMar/Rauma.)

Second to respond, however, in March 2016 when Hendrix Genetics applied to move 50,000 nucleus eggs from the Scottish Landcatch programme into Norway, was the Environment Directorate (KLD), which immediately blocked the movement of eggs despite all health certification and testing requirements being met or exceeded, stating quite openly that ‘they didn’t want Scottish genetics in Norway’.

The EU regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species was cited as the piece of legislation used to support the ban, although the Scottish government’s legal department quickly reviewed this and decided that Norway was unlawfully interpreting the document.

This document is designed to exclude exotic species, although KLD was apparently using this to exclude alleles in an already indigenous species.

Then began a series of meetings and exchange of information (involving various department directors, state secretaries, ministers, and even the prime minister of Norway herself) where Landcatch challenged this decision.

This dialogue continued up until March 2018, when the Norwegian government issued a statement that their final decision was to prevent the movement of Atlantic salmon eggs from Scotland into Norway over concerns that, if allowed in and if any escaped, and if those escapees accessed a river and bred with wild Atlantic salmon, this could have a catastrophic impact on the wild gene pool.

It is interesting to note certain points that arose during the period between the initial refusal and the final determination by the Norwegian government: • At no stage did the Norwegian government conduct any genetic analysis on the Landcatch strain, and even admitted that they were making an assumption on the precautionary principle; • The Norwegian government declined to advise what genetic analysis we could offer (that is, specific markers) that might allay their concerns; • There were movements of Atlantic salmon eggs from Iceland into Norway, permitted without any genetic analysis but on a stated assumption that these were of Norwegian origin and uncontaminated by other strains in the 20 years they had been present in Iceland; • There were also movements of trout eggs from Denmark, halibut fry from Canada and Scotland, and wild caught wrasse from any water outside of Norway; • Peer reviewed papers were provided in abundance showing that the genetic differences between different strains of farmed and wild salmon were insignificant, and KLD even admitted that there was a greater difference between farmed Norwegian strains and wild Norwegian salmon than between farmed Scottish and

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farmed Norwegian, yet it was decided to draw the line at the Landcatch strain; • The Scottish industry became almost 100 per cent reliant on imported eggs, mainly from Norway.

During the process, the Scottish government had been asked to challenge this decision as it was clearly an unlawful trade barrier between a non-EU country and the EU. As mentioned above, the first action was to determine that the Norwegian government’s interpretation of the Alien Species Act was unlawful.

Following this, the Scottish government was asked repeatedly to challenge the ban, but sadly no action was taken, despite public statements from the minster of fisheries that the Norwegian government’s decision was not based on science or reason.

This lack of action, and willingness to allow a long established Scottish company to be mistreated by a foreign government (even if in the greater interests of Norwegian investment in the Scottish industry) is not how governments are supposed to behave.

The challenge facing the minister of fisheries was therefore quite simple: either disagree with the ban and do something about it, or agree with the ban and then explain to the anti-salmon farming lobby why you aren’t applying the same rules.

After the final decision of the Norwegian government in March 2018, and without any assistance or support from the Scottish government, it was clear that Landcatch required a change of strategy to maintain economic viability.

Being blocked from 85 per cent of the available market in Europe and Scandinavia, Landcatch cannot hope to compete with the Norwegian based egg producers that enjoy the protection of the Norwegian government.

We have to seriously consider the value in maintaining a breeding programme in Scotland, despite having a history of 34 years of successful breeding and the supply of over 150 million smolts and nearly one billion eggs into the global industry.

Fortunately, the future of Hendrix Genetics in Scotland is secured through contract smolt production and long term genetic and production support agreements with the Scottish Salmon Company on its Native Hebridean strain.

But decades of world leading breeding technology and collaboration with the universities of Stirling, Glasgow and Edinburgh, once seen as a shining example of smart, successful, Scotland’ is clearly regarded as a sacrifice worth making rather than challenging blatant protectionism by the Norwegian government.

The guardians of the Scottish salmon industry should take note; this passive acceptance of bully tactics by the Norwegian government is threatening the closure of Scotland’s last independent salmon breeding company, and placing a vital component of the value chain entirely in foreign hands, subject to import regulations.

The global animal breeding industry is reliant on a number of things, including: genetic diversity (that is, a range of strains); and a combination of local production and movement of genetic material across borders.

Free competition, multiple choices for buyers, and the avoidance of sector domination or monopolies ought to be common sense.

All Landcatch ever asked for was a level playing field.

Neil Manchester is managing director of Hendrix Genetics Aquaculture BV. FF

This “passive

acceptance of bully tactics by the Norwegian government is threatening the closure of Scotland’s last independent salmon breeding company

”

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News extra – Interactions group

It’s good to talk Chairman of new salmon body looks forward to bringing farmed and wild sectors together

T

HE new farmed and wild salmon interactions group set up by the Scottish government comes as the industry approaches a crossroads. It will meet for the first time in September, just as Holyrood’s Rural Economy and Connectivity committee is due to deliver the findings of its inquiry into the sector, and there will be much focus on how the two sides respond.

The interactions group has been driven by the two ministers responsible for the industry, Fergus Ewing and Roseanna Cunningham, and they will be hoping to see a common approach between aquaculture leaders and the wild fish sector, particularly in relation to sea lice.

The man appointed to chair this potentially fractious body, John Goodlad, said he is looking forward to it.

‘Anybody who reads the press, whether it’s the fish farming press or the general press, will be very much aware it’s a live subject, there’s a huge amount of controversy, a lot of heat generated, perhaps not so much light, and conflicting claims from both sides.

‘So the purpose of the group is to get the different stakeholders

Left: Marine Harvest’s Ronnie Hawkins explains the cleaner fish operation to Prince Charles during his visit to Loch Leven in 2016.

Above: John Goodlad.

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together and see what common ground there is, with regard to the current policy on sea lice in aquaculture and wild fisheries, and review existing projects and plan future projects, and then, crucially, after several meetings, try to draw things together and make some recommendations.’

If anyone can find common cause between these two factions it is Goodlad, who has being working behind the scenes for the past year and a half in an attempt to resolve their differences.

‘Under the radar’ talks, prompted by Prince Charles’ visit to a Marine Harvest salmon farm in the autumn of 2016, have been conducted in London and at Dumfries House in Scotland to address specifically the adoption of the ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) standard in Scotland.

As part of Charles’ International Sustainability Unit (ISU), of which Goodlad was the fisheries advisor, these meetings have included Marine Harvest executives, members of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation, the Atlantic Salmon Trust (whose patron is Charles), Fisheries Management Scotland, leading retailers and government officials.

Goodlad said he would like to think these discussions - described by several participants as cordial and constructive - will have provided the groundwork from which the new body can proceed.

Although the ISU has been wound up, as Charles’s royal duties increase, its work will continue ‘as long as it needs to’, through the Fishmongers Company in London, said Goodlad.

‘It will be effectively the same group, I’ll

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03/07/2018 10:17:55

It’s good to talk continue to chair it, and it will be the same salmon working group but run by Fishmongers Company rather than the ISU.’ While related to the new interactions workstream, the goal of these London talks, as with the ISU, is to encourage more farms in Scotland to embrace the ASC , which imposes very ambitious sea lice targets, and do more with cleaner fish and non-chemical treatments of sea lice. And its work will come to a natural end once the ASC is updated, Goodlad believes.

The uptake of the standard in Scotland has been lower than elsewhere because of the practice here of rearing young salmon in freshwater lochs, precluded from ASC criteria, and this has become part of an ongoing dialogue between the industry and the ASC. ‘So ASC have taken on board that there are certain things they need to do to make the ASC standard more applicable to Scotland and that’s being looked at at the moment,’ said Goodlad. ‘The outcome will be known some time later this summer, maybe August.’

That would be a good place for the new interactions group to begin its work, which will be ‘connected’ and ‘complementary’ to the ISU discussions. However, this group will be very open and transparent and ‘people will be watching it very closely’, said Goodlad.

He was keen to keep the group small, with about eight or nine members, whose final composition will be announced shortly.

‘I think the group will be representative of the aquaculture industry, of the wild fish sector, and then the various regulatory bodies that are involved, such as Sepa and SNH [Scottish Natural Heritage].’

There are concerns that while organisations such as the Atlantic Salmon Trust and Fisheries Management Scotland are prepared to talk to the salmon farmers, and have been doing so through the ISU, the more vocal anti-salmon farming lobby will never cooperate.

Goodlad said the group will be a coalition of the willing: ‘It would be completely naïve to expect that this group could get everybody around the table. There are people who don’t believe there can be any meeting in the middle, that’s probably in both sectors.

‘Let’s try and get the people on both sides who are prepared to sit down and have a rational discussion on the issues, and look at the science that’s been done and look at the science that might need to be done in the future, and make some very clear recommendations to government.

‘I think that can be done. I’m very determined that that is our vision and I believe that is perfectly possible.’

He said it wouldn’t be particularly productive, anyway, to get everyone with a view on the subject in the same room.

‘In any situation where you have two very fundamentally different points of view, you can only make progress by getting together the people who represent these two different sectors, but who are prepared to sit down and

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Goodlad.indd 19

discuss rationally, look at science and listen.’

He is confident of getting that cooperative group of people and, with ‘a little bit of goodwill from all sides’, expects to make some headway.

They will meet on as many occasions and for as long as they believe it is necessary, to get as far as it’s possible to get to.

‘I would hope we would be able to show some progress by early 2019. That’s just a chairman’s rather naïve ambition.’

The ministers won’t sit in on every meeting but they will both be taking a very close interest in the group, he said.

One of the first things the interactions group do will be to have a look at the findings of the REC committee, and the earlier ECCLR (Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform] committee, and see what they say in relation to current government policy.

‘Our objective is not just to look at it but to come up with some clear recommendations that have the weight of everybody in the group, all sectors.’

Goodlad dismisses suggestions from critics that this is a PR exercise and insists that progress can be made when people talk to each other.

He chaired the Scottish pelagic sustainability group, which brought together all the pelagic catchers and processors in Scotland in the aftermath of the black fish scandal, to try and restore that industry’s reputation.

They agreed to try and achieve exacting MSC certification for herring and mackerel fisheries, which people said was an impossible dream.

But they succeeded, putting North Sea herring through in 2008 and then western mackerel, west of Scotland herring and blue whiting.

‘We achieved something of really fundamental and lasting importance for the Scottish industry – that was the industry that delivered that. It shows what can be done when you have people around the table who are determined to move things forward.

‘You have to have a high set of ambitions. So let’s see how we get on.’ FF Iron men in wooden boats: book review, page 62

“

I would hope we would be able to show some progress by early 2019

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03/07/2018 10:18:19

Comment Comment

BY PROFESSOR PHIL THOMAS

BY PROFESSOR PHIL THOMAS

Postcard from America Underpinning When politics provenance

A second term for Donald Trump is now being regarded as a distinct prospect

Igets personal I D

SPENT a good part of the morning recently in the Barnes & Noble bookstore, across the Middlesex Turnpike from the Burlington Mall near Lexington. I am in the last week of my regular summer visit to the America, which this year has taken me through Rhode Island, Connecticut and finally to Massachusetts.

Barnes & Noble is a favourite haunt of mine. It is one of the classic ‘big-box bookstores’ which once were a distinctive feature of American towns and cities. Under pressure from the low cost and convenience of Amazon, many depend on the provenance of their products she quickly sensed an aut may not be politically correct to say so at such stores have disappeared and those that remain have needed to adjust dience response and moved to safer comedic material: there are some present but farmed Atlantic salmon would their business models. things you just don’t joke about! not have become Scotland’s leading food Barnes & Noble,on as your a casedegree in point, repositioned as arefusal ‘booksto and geon’s support the Withdrawal Bill, because of its claimed EPENDING of has natural optive - itself However, her remark left me asking myself whether we think enough export without the Crown Estate’s positi things’mism, retailer.

Nonetheless, it still offers anperiod exceptionally well selected cata(but temporary) ‘power grab’ of devolved powers, looks increasingly the spring-through-summer about the underpinning of the provenance of Scottish farmed fish – and engagement with aquaculture development logue of of publications brings back memories a good bookstoreAtcan unstatesmanlike. a time when Scotland’s national interests lie in forgis likelyand to be perceived either asof what for me that’s farmed salmon. back in 2018 the 1980s. offer. the calm before the storm or as the dawn ing close and effective working relationships with the UK, the Scottish There is no doubt that Scottish provenance is important to our indusNow, aquaculture is a significant part of the It also provides some pointers to the political, social and business books that looks like gesture politics. government’s approach that heralds a sunlit day. try – it gives us the edge in all our key markets. agency’s marine leasing portfolio and is regumany mindful and engaged are buying at the present The Westminster Public in Administrati on and Constitutional Affairs SeAgainst the ever present Americans background the and reading aProvenance way that will potentially can be defihave ned long-term in variousimplications. ways but most people will agree larly celebrated by the Crown Estate’sofScotti sh time. lect Committee has just reported that, in a survey of 1,000 people, fewer Brexit negotiations and the range of ongoing Even among those who dislike the direction of policy travel and little that it goes beyond the appearance and sensory qualiti eshave of the final Marine Aquaculture Awards event.

This year’s On my theon amount of shelf devoted to Donald striking. than Trump 0.1 perwas cent think the Westminster and the Holyrood governments politi cal visit, attacks the details ofspace the Europetime for President Trump as a national leader, there is an acknowledgement product: fl avour, texture, visual presentati on and product consistency event in Edinburgh on the 11 June was the It’s Union as if over the past twoBill years or so, socio-political discourse in America hasPersonally, work well together.

I am figure was as high as an (Withdrawal) 2017-19, political that he hassurprised got things the done. are always key factors in consumer appeal but provenance is about usual highly successful showcase for Scottish from become wholly focused on the Trump phenomenon, the presidential that! uncertainties abound. The shape of things to At present, opinion polls suggest the President’s support from Republican much more. aquaculture and apolitical rare opportunity for induselection, to Trump’s next’ons in arevoters Bothhappens administrati deeply entrenched in doing own thing in come is anything but clear.beliefs and policies, to the ‘what is holding up rather well, their and although Democrat voters may not like It reflects a wider concepttoof quality assurance, including: try evolution to join together to markpolitics its success. the of the country’s position world. their own way, and prospects beconsumer The febrile atmosphere is affectingand both the in the whatforis synergies happening,seem they rarely are finding itconsidered. difficult to build an effective surge of opthe where the sh is grown and processed; the professional The Crown Estate is presently at thethose centre this focus not only concerns and write about suchonsposition.

Yet both administrati are place challenged thefifor same policy issues UKMoreover, and the Scotti sh governments in conjointwho study A second by term Trump is thus being–regarded as a distinct prospect. integrity of the producti on and processing methods; and the quality, of further devoluti on discussions between the matters.

It represents enduring group of thealmost healthany service, social welfare, educati on, economic and and wholly separate an areas.

Both preoccupation seem to be among Among the business sector theregrowth, has been understandable support for a commitment and care of the people involved – the professional skills, UK government and Scotti sh government.

The people youtheir meet. so on. What’s more, in Scotland, these challenges will growthat over time spending reserves of public goodwill and range of business positive measures have been initiated by the Trump experti se, passion and dedicati on of the producers themselves. long-term future of key Scotti sh functi ons reInterestingly, the viewsfeeling you find in the community create a ratherand different as income expenditure controls are increasingly devolved to the there is an underlying that eventually administration.

In Scotland our ‘place of production’ gives us a huge natural advanmains to unclear and professional experti se could picture the one you would gain from following the UK print and broadcasting Scotti sh government. there will be a political price to pay.

However, exporting businesses and international companies are said to be tagenues because we grow fiits sh focus in theon pristi waters of some of be squandered in the process ofportray organisati onalHouse media.

Whereas, our media tend to a White in constantthe confuMeanwhile, media conti to concerns concentrate thene coastal For many voters, First Minister Nicola Sturvoicing some about isolationist policies and the downside risks of inthe most beauti ful and wild scenic areas of the world, and our brand is change. sion bordering on chaos, the view of the citizens on thepersonal sidewalk and is much more politi cal ‘tragedies’ that might happen or have ternational trade disputes.

These voicesalready seem unlikely to grow unless US trade protected by its PGI status.

Both the Crown Estate’s core experti se and nuanced and much more informative. unfolded. The threat to Shona Robison’s (shaky) as Scotti is adversely affected.

And,positi in thatoncase, theresh is nothing to suggest that any of Likewise, adopti the Scotti sh Code of Good Practice the Marine Awards impor- that aHealth While on myAquaculture trip I have come to theare conclusion range of factors are Secretary or to thePresident recent resignati ononofofAmber RuddshasFinfi Home Trump’s policies will be inflexible to changed circumstances. with the industry’s deep commitment to aimmigration range of independent tant in maintaining the distinctive coherence contributing to this situation.

Secretary are examples. allied As an example, the recent hard line policies on illegal across the farm quality assurance programmes, including the sh welfare ofFirstly, Scotland’s aquaculture and it would be a the US economy is currently strong. While President Trump is not Bringing the issues down to this personal level suitsthe theenforced public and Mexico border, which involved separation of RSPCA childrenfifrom their scheme, builds on the taken underlying strength ofrapidly our statutory regulatory tragedy if due theyany became casualti es ofispoliti cal necessarily credit for this, there widespread voter recognition media demandthat for soapparents opera.

However, ifwere fails properly address as the latter into to custody, were hauled back last systems ourcproducti systems. change. he hasn’t messed it up, at least to this point. the underlying issues, which reflto ectassure systemati failures in our sysweek because of widespread publicon criticism in the US and internationally.

Finally, the skills, experti se, passion and onbeen of our farmers This year’s Awards event was hosted by While there may be some unemployment blackspots in the country, business going tems of government, well beyond those that relate solely todedicati That President Trump listened and changed his mindLeft: has Amberregarded Rudd. as a canhe beis demonstrated in abundance in and outNicola –intensity andSturgeon they actress, comedian Caulfi eld,I was an told more in generalwriter is doingand well, and on theJoeast coast about MPs andshortages MSPs. Opposite: sign not immune to public pressure, day if applied at day the right andwere in showcased by the recent awards event. inspired choice by whoever made the booking. of specialist personnel than lack of job opportunities.

The Rudd farrago offthe erscorrect a caseway. in point. As part of its routine However, being wholly objecti ve and forward looking, is thispublic third She was very entertaining and on kept Reflecting this,funny thereand is a renewed emphasis training and on new degree work, the UK Home AffThis airs Selectevent Committ ee exposed apparentsignal is important sincean it could lead to a new era initwhich area of provenance where the Scotti sh industry has greatest scope the proceedings goingtraining with acourses: swing. some Only once level and post-graduate universitiesly arelong-standing using industryfailure in public administrati on in the Home Offi ce. criticism, protest and effective lobbying are rediscovered as forces for good infor systemati c development.

That is noton to of say that our industry’s skills did she stray, when sheproviders, wondered what ‘provespecialists as short course accepting that their own staffon may notterms, be the Judged any handling of the generati FF Windrush American politics. and professional expertise are not of theit highest calibre, but it is to nance actually meant’. at the cutting edge in all specialisms. immigrants is a national public scandal, although it now appears recognise thatpoliti our vocati educational and training structures, and In a room of folk whose livelihoods Contrary to full the perceptions provided by the UK media, acknowlhasTrump beenisan open secret among elected cians onal for years. edged to have made progress on significant parts of his agenda, both in terms nature of British politics, Rudd’s resignation was Given the adversarial 12 legislative impacts and through implementing commitments of he made during inevitable; her lack of knowledge of the basic aspects of her brief was www.fishfarmer-magazine.com his election campaign. wholly damning.

Additionally, through the expediency of either filling or not filling posts, he is 28 perceived to have shifted the direction of American policies to the political right www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

Do we think enough about what gives the industry its edge in key markets?

Failures in our systems of government go well beyond individual MPs or MSPs

“

We should be organising our training and education provisions much better

Unaware“ness of a problem is no defence against failing to deal with it

”

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SSPO.indd 12

20

There are signs he is not immune to “public pressure, if applied at the right intensity and in the correct way ”

03/07/2015 14:31:33

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

Phil Thomas.indd 28

09/05/2018 16:35:55

Phil Thomas.indd 20

03/07/2018 10:19:09

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02/07/2018 12:11:29

Trade Associations – British Trout Association

Under attack Environment has greater impact on aquaculture than the other way around

BY DOUG MCLEOD

A

s everyone in the aquaculture community is all too well aware, there is no shortage of comments, inferences and hypotheses about the impact of aquaculture on the inshore waters and the natural flora and fauna of the Scottish aquatic environment, not to mention the more qualitative issues of visual impact.

From waste, chemicals and generation of sea lice infestation, through to assaults on marine mammals and negatively impacting upon phytoplankton populations, the marine aquaculture industry suffers from a continuous barrage of accusations, implications and wildly exaggerated claims about its interactions with the environment.

All this despite the expensive and extended programme of research, development and implementation of remedial efforts to reduce the impact of disease on the fish and any proven impact on the environment over the past several decades, and operating under what is arguably the tightest regulatory programme of environmental constraints in the global food production sector.

However, there is little talk of the impact of the environment on the operations of the aquaculture industry – from wild fish disease creating mass mortalities, the expense of vaccines and other medical treatments required to improve fish welfare, constant threats on the livestock from marine mammals seeking an easy meal, algal blooms (both toxic and merely oxygen depleting), along with invasions of jellyfish and difficulties (using the term loosely) associated with climate change.

Farming the seas and the oceans is not a career for the faint hearted. I would argue that the environment has a greater impact on the aquaculture industry than the other way around, particularly in terms of scale, with total licensed sites forming a minor percentage of the total inshore acreage (the precise figure depends on what is included as total inshore acreage).

Life is not going to get any easier, as the production sector moves further offshore to more dynamic sites- diplomatic language for greater swells, bigger waves, stronger winds and more challenging engineering in general, from anchoring systems to cage construction.

Although freshwater aquaculture tends not to attract the same degree of environmental based attack, the two sides of the interface exhibit similar arguments.

Claims of negative impacts on water quality and river/loch natural populations, chemical discharges and impacting natural water flows are levelled at the industry.

On the other hand, detractors fail to acknowledge the significant impacts on production operations from predators (otters, cormorants, and so on); natural

freshwater aquaculture enjoys a “lowerAlthough profile than our marine colleagues, the unbalanced interface is similar’ ”

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events such as the autumnal shedding of leaves which choke the water supply; floods; diffuse pollution from other rural operators, including agriculture; and the chemical, detritus and solids loading of waterways from forestry (neither industry experiencing the equivalent level of regulation as fish farming); along with the potentially significant pollution from rural tourism, which again is largely unmonitored or controlled.

So, although freshwater aquaculture enjoys a lower public/media profile than our marine colleagues, the unbalanced environmental interface is similarthe lack of a level playing field in terms of impacting and being impacted upon is again clear.

With a further commonality being the complete disregard of the contribution made by fish farming operations to economically fragile rural communities, both directly and via the employment and fiscal multipliers.

Looking to the future, aquaculture is always a prime sector identified for significant participation in the provision of protein for populations around the planet and for increased food security for Europe and the UK. Therefore, the interaction between the industry and the environment is a critical issue to resolve in a positive manner. The impacts flow in both directions, and a democratic and science based risk assessment must surely represent the optimal way forward rather than the current skewed commentary from individual interest groups. FF

Above: Impacted upon

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03/07/2018 10:20:04

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02/07/2018 12:12:53

Trade associations – Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation

Status symbol

Protecting the good name of our farmed salmon

BY ROBBIE LANDSBURGH

F

ARMED Scottish salmon is protected as a food name under EU law, along with foods such as Stilton cheese, Arbroath smokies, Cornish clotted cream and many more.

Scottish salmon is a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), meaning that similar products which don’t fully conform to the specified characteristics of the foodstuff (such as shape, colour, texture) attributable to a geographical region cannot be passed off as being that protected product.

In our case, the geographical region is the western coast of mainland Scotland, the Western Isles, Orkney and the Shetland Isles.

An additional requirement is that at least part of the production process (production, processing or preparation) must take place within the relevant region to conform to the PGI specification.

For Scottish salmon, the marine phase of production must take place in the relevant geographic region of Scotland. So, for example, salmon with identical characteristics farmed in another country could not be labelled Scottish salmon.

Both the origin and the specific qualities of the product are requirements, and thus origin alone is not enough to constitute a geographical indication (GI).

What are the benefits to Scottish salmon of being a PGI? Firstly, PGI status prevents produce from other countries being labelled and passed off as something it isn’t. This enhances the reputation and integrity of products which are labelled as the genuine article.

There are intended benefits to both producers and consumers in this approach. PGI ensures authenticity and exclusivity of the product the consumer buys (and, in the process, provides clear information regarding product origin).

It helps to protect unfair use, misuse or imitation of a product name for genuine producers, a system which underpins their sales and marketing process.

The GI system leads to higher and more stable export earnings and thereby helps to make a major contribution to the local rural economy, where most GIs have their production base, as in the case of Scottish salmon.

Both wild and farmed Scottish salmon hold PGI status, and London Cured Smoked Salmon, a distinct product comprising superior grade farmed or wild Scottish salmon cured with rock salt and oak smoke, also benefits from being a PGI. There have been proposals for smoked Scottish salmon to gain similar recognition and protection. The status, along with accreditations such as Label Rouge, RSPCA Assured and others, helps to set Scottish salmon apart from its competitors in a variety of beneficial ways.

The broader context The system of food name protection in Europe can be seen as a feature of the interaction of intellectual property (IP) law that includes copyrights, trademarks and patents, with the broader realm of EU competition laws and laws concerning consumer protection and product labelling.

The current regime can trace its roots back many years, with France one of the first countries to introduce a form of geographical indication system, known as appellation d’origine controlee, in the middle of the 20th century, although the concept of legal protection actually goes back centuries before that.

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SSPO - July.indd 24

There is a significant body of case law and jurisprudence on food name protection, illustrating again its importance to European society.

Legal protection of certain food names is now formally established in the European Union, predominantly under EU regulation No 1151/2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs; regulation No 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs; and EU customs regulation 608/2013 concerning customs enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Globally, the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 1995 Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provides a minimum level of protection. WTO members are obliged to provide food name protection as a result of the agreement, but the precise method of protection is left to the members themselves and this inherently leads to confusion, uncertainty and disputes for globally traded products.

There are various categories of protection for food and drink (and other products) under EU law.

There is Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG), which emphasises the production method of the food and does not impose any restrictions on geographical origin.

There is Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), which has strict criteria regarding qualities and characteristics essentially or exclusively due to a particular geographical environment. This stipulates that the entire production process takes place exclusively within that region.

Finally, there is Protected Geographical Indication, as described above, which applies to Scottish salmon.

The EU, having introduced its PGI system in 1993, is considered by many to have the most comprehensive and sophisticated system for protecting geographical indications.

It is not the only jurisdiction to protect intellectual property of food and drink, however. Some countries use specific geographical indications laws Above: Farmed Scottish salmon and registers. Some use consumer protection law on its own.

Australia and the US use more basic certification trademark or trademark type systems (to varying degrees) for legal protection of such intellectual property. GIs provide significantly better breadth and depth of protection, and better enforcement

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03/07/2018 10:22:20

Status symbol

options compared with private IP rights such as certification and collective trademarks. This helps maintain a better price premium.

Why is all this important?

As the UK embarks on leaving the EU, it is imperative from our point of view that a PGI system based on the EU system is replicated at a UK level as we exit.

Other food and drink products with geographical indications share our concerns on this. This will ensure continued legal protection for Scottish salmon at home and abroad. We are in discussions with the relevant authorities in this regard.

There are wider future implications, however. The UK government intends to pursue an independent trade policy after the UK leaves the EU. This will entail attempts to secure free and preferential trade agreements with a whole host of countries.

Each of these countries will have their own individual intellectual property laws and approaches to preventing infringement of laws – a factor in the

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SSPO - July.indd 25

helps to set Scottish salmon apart from its “PGI competitors in a variety of beneficial ways �

ongoing trade dispute between China and the US, for example- and some are notably sceptical and relatively lacklustre when it comes to legally protecting geographical indications.

We continue to stress the need to specifically protect Scottish salmon as a PGI within these agreements either in a GI chapter, or separately by standalone bilateral or multilateral geographical indication agreements, and for the greatest level of protection possible in all circumstances.

Agreements to protect GIs form part of the CETA trade agreement between the EU and Canada and we would cite this as a precedent on which to build consensus for a similar level of protection in any future trade agreements the UK enters into.

We plan to step up lobbying in preparation for a post-Brexit PGI framework wherein UK bodies will become the competent legal authorities for ultimate enforcement, and ensure protection of the intellectual property and authenticity of our produce continues at home and abroad. FF

25

03/07/2018 10:22:45

nisations – the BTA, ASSG and SSPO – to abreast of the important topics of the day hellfish and salmon sectors respectively. er content is concerned we hope you’ll

into oyster growing around the globe and also an overview of the Hungarian aquaculture industry, which is beginning to evolve from production of carps to higher value predatory fish. We hope you enjoy all the changes. FF

News Editor

Trade associations - The Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers

ntributors

Mike Urch has more than 40 years experience of the seafood industry. Now a freelance journalist, he is a former editor of Seafood International magazine.

BY NICK LAKELAKE CEO AND JANET H BROWN DR NICK

nts

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.

Future is bright Conference season

Editorial Advisory Board News in Brief Norwegian Newsin outputs has been accompanied by an increase in employment Growth Biosecurity issues to be addressed at Oban event News Trade Associations the latest producti statisticsenvironment minHERE’S no problem being about all the arduous work shellhe ASSG is currently invery fastupbeat forward mode with preparations for will be opened byonScottish had me scrabbling for an encouraging proof of fiour sh growers have put inconference, to continue our sector onin anOban upward trajectory. annual shellfish to be held from Octoister Dr Aileen McLeod, Hungarian Aquaculture answer whenthe quizzed Publicati on by Marine Scotland of the annual cultivated shellfish producber 22-23. the support Scottish government wishes by a journalist.

Oysters tion fi gures for 2017 presents the opportunity to assess how well we are The shellfish world is not really large enough to support two to provide to the industry.

How doing (http://www.gov.scot/Publicati ons/2018/05/5986/3). conferences so to find our meeting coinciding with not Thewere ASSGthe could not run such an event on Interviewsimultaneous white legged Producti on ofparallel musselsevents for the is table to almost 8,500 tonnes and one but two an amounted unfortunate state of affairs. an annual basis without the support of our shrimp prooysterconference outputs achieved around to fivechange million shells. additi on, proSea Lice Pacifi Thec ASSG was forced dates In due to Oban host- sponsors and we are extremely grateful to the duced?Estate, Seafish, and Scottish Natural ducti on for on-growing contributed approximately a further 4,500 tonnes of ing the National Mod at the time of the early neap tides in October, Crown Seafood in Schools I then remussels andslot. four million Pacific oysters. our usual Heritage. membered Considerable hard work from a wide range of producers has helped our inBut we now clash with both the European Aquaculture Society’s Equally, Highlands and Islands Enterprise are Marine Scotland vaguely dustry along the lines suggested by various strategies.

Theshellfish conclusion once annualdevelop get together, which will be heavily geared towards more sponsoring the prizes of Richard Processing that somemust thatleadership individual shellfi sh producers strategies.

Well, in probably not! Bramble underbethe of Professor Aadread Smaal, while over Cape Cod designed and commissioned ceramic where for in the Best Scottish Shellfish competiBut it would be really good if we could get all our Scotti sh government agencies plates Markets there will be the World Oyster Congress.

Scotland and bodies alignedthe to drive Nevertheless, ASSGforward has in further place asuccess. programme of direct reletion winners. an innovator WhatDirectory is heartening this growth in outputs been accompanied by Aqua Source vance and interest istothat shellfish growers, policyhas makers and regulators

T

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8 needs “toCare be taken

that we do not leave 16 any route by which OHV could spread

”

had estab- issues not only an increase in first sale value, but also an increase in employment. and bookings can be made at our website Biosecurity lished a recircu- by Marine Scotland Fish One of the key features of the shellfi sh culti vati on sector is that it creates and www.assg.org.uk The notification dvisory Board: Jim Treasurer, Steve Bracken, Herve Miguad, Sunil .Kadri and Ken Hughes lation system for maintains jobs in remote rural areas, and regardless of theThe relaticonference ve rise in the Health Inspectorate of the removal of the apr: Rob Fletcher Design: Andrew Balahura Penaeuszone vannamei value of the outputs of the sector, it has supported more individuals. proved status for Manager: William Dowds wdowds@fishupdate.com Publisher: Alister Bennett shrimp- a decidedly warmthe Reculver shellfish hatchery in Whitstable, Kent, on the basis of l: +44 (0) 131Growing 551 1000 +44 (0) 131 551 7901 e-mail: editor@fishfarmer-magazine.com water species –ofand he had theFax: product the presence oyster herpes virus (OHV) in contacted waysfor to secure supply. ww.fishfarmer-magazine.com shupdate.com It is probably true www.fi to say that the unit value paid to producers of oysters and the area isme of regarding huge import the UKa seed shellfish Great toasknow that he had produced something but definitely not a species mussels has not risen thatFerry demand for Edinburgh high quality Scotti cultivated shell- industry e: Special Publications, Fettes Park,but 496 Road, EH5 sh 2DL a whole. for Scotti shPA34 coastal waters,to unless we have fish has never been better.1,Markets, whether they are localIndustrial sales or into the Oban, ns Address: ‘Fish Farmer’, P.O. Box Crannog Lane, Lochavullin Estate, Argyll, 4HB The situation appears be that whilea major climate change episode.

It also transpired that Marine Scotland had registered common periwinkle retail chain, are developing based on the range of shellfi sh – fresh or prepared no OHV has been detected in the hatchery 1631 568000 Fax: +44 (0) 1631 568001 (Littorina spp) the as aquaculture producti on.

Yes, that - now able to be delivered. facility itself, area from which it draws its is the species that you find ptions £75 a year, rest of world £95 including postage. All Air Mail. on most Scotti sh foreshores withcontaminated hard substrates.

It was great to see the success of the shellfish sector at the recent UK seawater supply has become Clockwise from top right: eat Britain for Aquaculture the proprietors Wyvex MediaNot Ltdonly by did Headley Brothers Ltd., Ashford, KentIt was ISSN 0262-9615 a species I worked with at Seafish Ardtoe in the past to look at poAwards in Aviemore.

Loch Ryan Native Oysters get with OHV. Winners of the 2014 tenti for cultivation.

It can be grown fairly easily ng juveniles and recognised with the new award of Shellfish Farm Manager of the Year, but the Thealimmediate consideration is where doesby collecti shellfish awards; the supplying them with macroalgae.

However, I suspect the case in question is Scotti sh Shellfi sh Marketi ng Group product came home ahead of three salmon this leave Pacific oyster seed supply into Scot3 rmer-magazine.com event in Oban probably a shellfi merchant who,years? when riddling hand gathered winkles to dishes! land for the nextshand following achieve minimum size, has not wanted Moules et frites, familiar to many as the national dish of Belgium, has been While athere are currently two otherto waste the grade-outs (which he will have paid for in the sack along with some stones delivered to him by the innovated as a Scottish mussels and chips dish by the SSMG. hatcheries, both of which remain within hand gatherer).

Such innovation shows that increased Scottish production 08/02/2013 11:24:01 approved zones and are capable of supplying It is likely he realisedGuernsey that if these winkles areand placed in an enclosure on the can be readily accommodated Scottish producers, Sea Farms foreshore andBay supplied withwhat seaweed, over a summer he can regain his lost within the UK market and so Morecambe Oysters, is needed is expenditure.

Whether this is the case and if it should be included as cultivated the future is bright. improved planning and forward ordering on shellfish production is a moot point, but I am not expecting a rush of members Shellfish jobs are not just from the hand gathered periwinkle sector. being created in the rural 18 www.fishfarmer-magazine.com Let’s keep our focus on what we have been increasingly doing well – bivalve economy. The central belt shellfish production. is increasingly seeing employment rise on ASSG.indd 18 02/10/2015 15:33:07 Production strategy the back of the Industry success takes time to deliver and is dependent on both our reliance processing and on a pristine natural environment- to fuel outputs through 100 per cent relidistribution of ance on natural algal production – and our own cultivation systems to work in our products. harmony with the marine ecosystem.

We have a 2020 target to achieve 13,000 tonnes of Scottish cultivated New species A one-liner in shellfish and we are well placed to meet this. More ambitiously, we have a

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Future is bright

“

The shellfish cultivation sector creates and maintains jobs in remote rural areas

”

2030 goal of 21,000 tonnes of shellfish, which seems achievable given current performance.

However, our reliance on our ‘fuel’ from the natural environment is matched by the need for seed and we may need to be more innovative to achieve continued growth.

If you look at most primary production industries it is not just seed that they rely on but carefully selected strains which deliver the required performance.

In terms of the production statistics for Scottish oysters, there was a substantial increase in the Pacific oyster output in 2017, but it must be remembered that this relied on seed in the water three to four years before.

Equally, native oyster production was static at 200,000 shells, seed supply being a major limiting factor on expansion.

The industry has been undertaking innovative work with potential mussel seed supply based on the ‘stepping stone’ hatchery project in Shetland- looking Opposite (left): Robert to reduce any inherent variability of supply from the wild- and increase future Lamont of Loch production outputs.

Ryan Oyster Fishery This sort of innovation takes time to come to fruition and as we head towards with award sponsor 2030 we will need to focus our efforts on a multi-faceted approach to ensuring Paul Szymanski of that seed supply can match production aspirations.

AFEX. (Top): Stephen Equally, king scallop production based on the 2017 Marine Scotland survey Cameron of the SSMG figures shows current Scottish cultivated outputs as only 47,000 shells. Would with Skretting’s John this production sector show greater potential if there were easier access to Williamson. Above: seed stocks?

Roseanna Cunningham The short-term answer may not lie in a dedicated hatchery facility. There in a litter picking may be the potential to generate benefits from improved management of exercise with Gullane the natural marine ecosystem and localised build-up of stocks allowing more Beaver group. reliable collection of seed.

ASSG conference 2018 This leads me to this year’s conference theme – ‘Scottish Cultivated Shellfish – Our Role in Saving the Planet!’ Our industry is 100 per cent reliant on a pristine marine environment, in which we can demonstrate that we have minimal

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impact and hence are truly a sustainable industry, almost regardless of our production targets.

The above has been a working title and may seem over dramatic. But knowing the subjects involved and the way we are heading- as a human species chewing through our natural resources – bivalve shellfish in terms of their cultivation and consumption certainly do make a compelling case for the modern age.

We are currently putting together a programme for the conference, which will be opened by Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform.

With a National Marine Plan finely balanced between use of the Scottish marine resource for social and economic purposes and the objective of maintaining and potentially enhancing the unique natural marine environment, the role of bivalve shellfish will be a primary focus.

Booking for this event, running from October 4-5, opens in July (www.assg.org.uk).

The conference is being sponsored by Crown Estate Scotland with co-sponsorship from Marine Scotland, and prizes in the fiercely contested best Scottish shellfish competition will once again be provided courtesy of HIE. Dr Nick Lake is CEO of the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers. FF

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03/07/2018 10:24:53

Comment

BY DR MARTIN JAFFA

None the wiser Smolt release study throws no light on impact of sea lice

A

NYONE hoping for a speedy resolution between the farmed and wild salmon sectors over the impacts of sea lice would have been deeply disappointed by a new report from the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum (SARF).

This is an interim report from Marine Scotland Science (MSS) following their three-year study measuring the number of returning salmon that had previously been released as smolts, either as control fish or having received an anti-sea lice treatment.

The theory was that any treated fish would be protected as they migrated out past salmon farms, whereas control fish might succumb.

Unfortunately, having released 3,231 smolts caught from the River Lochy over two years, 2015 and 2016, just two fish were recaptured.

One had been treated and the other came from the control group.

The researchers repeated the experiment on the east coast River Conon. They managed to recapture a total of 52 fish, of which 20 had been treated and 32 were controls. Therefore, more untreated fish were recaptured than those that had been treated.

The report tries to put a positive spin on the study, but the overall conclusion is that there are no conclusions to be drawn. It really hasn’t added to our knowledge of the interactions between farmed and wild salmon.

The key question is whether this work should have ever been commissioned and, ultimately, could the ÂŁ600,000 it cost have been used to greater effect elsewhere?

This project was not unique. There have been many trials in which treated smolts have been released as a way of measuring the impacts of salmon farming on wild fish populations.

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One of the largest studies took place in Ireland and involved 352,142 smolts that were released in eight locations over nine years in 28 different releases. The number of fish recaptured was 18,208, or five per cent of the total fish used in the trials.

The findings were that sea lice had a minimal impact on wild fish populations with a mortality of just one per cent. Another series of releases in Norway produced a similar result.

The wild fish sector has not been willing to accept that sea lice have such a low impact on wild salmon. Different statistics have been used to manipulate the Irish data to infer that the mortality is actually over 20 per cent, which is why the debate over farmed and wild fish interactions rolls on.

The publication of the SARF report received almost no publicity. There were no press releases or messages on social media. Given the lack of any results to report, this is perhaps not surprising.

However, the lack of any results is just as interesting. This is because it now appears that the overall objective of the study was not to determine an estimate of sea lice impacts on returning salmon in Scotland after all.

Instead, the report states that the principal aim was to obtain preliminary data to determine design requirements for a more extensive network of Scottish sites to obtain these comparative estimates.

In other words, the project was simply to help MSS sort out the methodology for further research as part of a wider project. Given that the Irish and Norwegian research has already identified a level of impact, there surely must be questions about why this project was even considered for SARF funding.

MSS are of course perfectly entitled to conduct trials to determine the design requirements for a more extensive study, but it is unclear why this was part of a SARF project.

Surely, the significance of such a project for the aquaculture sector would be to determine the impacts of salmon farming on wild fish populations, not to establish the scientific method for a future part of a wider project that might last for up to ten years. The salmon farming industry would have preferred answers now, not in 2025.

I may be writing with hindsight, but the whole project now looks extremely questionable from the outset. The main problem is that the researchers opted to use wild salmon smolts rather than ranched smolts as used in other studies.

The reasons for this choice are outlined in the report but one aspect

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None the wiser

Could the ÂŁ600,000 it cost have been “used to greater effect elsewhere? â€?

is not considered and that is the numbers of fish emanating from some west coast rivers were already very low. There were never going to be huge numbers of fish on which to run a trial. In fact, the researchers never caught the number of fish from the Lochy as they had established as necessary to run the study. This was 4,000 fish over the two years, whereas they only caught a total of 3,231.

One of the reasons they opted to use wild fish rather that ranched was, according to the report, the cost of producing such fish, yet I understand MSS were offered 50,000 ranched smolts a year but refused the offer.

Perhaps a ranched smolt trial could have been run in parallel.

Another key problem were the traps used to recapture fish from the River Lochy. The report details that there were problems with the design and deployment of the traps used. The traps effectively failed under spate conditions.

However, as the Lochy is a spate river, such spates are not of any surprise. An obvious question was why the traps were not built and tested before the study began, rather than during it.

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The fact that the traps were out of commission during some of the trial means that some of the returning fish are likely to have been missed. By comparison, the parallel trial on the River Conon had the benefit of a permanent trap.

The report concludes that the study has suggested a very low level of marine survival on the River Lochy which, together with trends in rod catches, now leads to serious doubts about the feasibility of developing a useful large network of study sites.

What this means is that plans to continue trapping, treating and releasing fish from other sites over the coming years now appear to have been dropped.

Sadly, a line cannot yet be drawn under this sorry tale. I am led to believe that SARF has provided MSS with more funding to continue the study for the rest of this season in the hope that some of the tagged fish may yet return as multi-sea winter (MSW) fish rather than one year at sea grilse. FF

Above: Salmon studied.

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03/07/2018 10:27:10

Farm visit – Marine Harvest

Net works!

How farmer’s innovation is tackling gill health problems

A

SIMPLE net handmade by a salmon farmer in his living room one Christmas has sparked a revolution in the way gill health problems are being tackled on Scottish farms.

Marine Harvest seawater manager David MacGillivray, a farmer with 30 years’ experience, had seen the healthy state of stocks in the company’s steel square cages fitted with ‘environets’ and reckoned there must be a way of adapting these to the more commonly used circular plastic pens.

His eureka moment – brought to fruition with trusted colleagues and suppliers – won Marine Harvest an innovation award in Aviemore recently and, more significantly, the wholehearted backing of the head office in Norway.

Environets are basically a system of two nylon nets stitched together at the headline, with one inside the cage and the other folded and left to dry; they are rotated every two weeks while the nets are

mostly still clean, and any growth falls off before it has a chance to take hold.

Marine Harvest has introduced this net cleaning method on more than 100 square pens over the past ten years, after seeing the results at Norwegian farms with squares, and managers have observed excellent gill health at these sites, in the south region and at Sconser on Skye.

‘The motivation for doing it was all about gill health,’ said MacGillivray, speaking to Fish Farmer at Marine Harvest’s Fort William offices.

‘We’d been talking about how much it had deteriorated when we went to full time net washing and came away from anti-fouling. It’s what everyone said but it’s a very hard thing to quantify, what effect the net cleaning has on the gills.

‘You don’t clean your nets and suddenly you damage gills. You clean your nets every two weeks or 10 days and it just seems like a slow progression. You can’t see it happening on a daily basis. It just happens.’

The link between power washing and gill health has been acknowledged throughout the industry, and although there has been no definitive scientific study, Marine Harvest decided it was obvious what was going on and came up with what they believe is a solution.

The company may still consider using better anti-fouling or going back to changing the nets, but as MacGillivray said:‘We’ve been there before and didn’t want to go down that road again.

‘I just thought about it for a while and thought, why can’t we do it [environets] in a plastic pen. I know the weight a plastic pen can take, I know the net, I know the process, so I convinced myself in my head I could do it.’

His DIY net, made around Christmas 2016, ‘didn’t

we can put “it onHopefully more sites because it just eliminates net cleaning

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Net works!

Left: David MacGillivray is presented with his innovation award

by Heather Jones, CEO of the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre. Above: Workboat Betty Bheag is on contract from Feorlig Marine to help with the ‘swim throughs’.

turn out quite how I envisioned it’ but he then brought in practical assistance in the shape of Marine Harvest farm manager Iain Fraser from Laga Bay in Loch Sunart, and another Iain Fraser, manager of Sconser, Caraigh and Maol Ban on Skye.

Having proved it could be done, MacGillivray called David Goodlad of Net Services in Shetland, a long-time collaborator.

‘Once he stopped laughing at my net, I showed him what I wanted to do and he went away and built another model and showed again that we could do the process,’ said MacGillivray.

Goodlad made the first two-net prototype which was fitted to a 120m circumference pen in Lochalsh, the site of the initial trial. The design of the net has not changed much from day one, apart from the add-on of hooks, and alterations to how it was roped.

‘We put the first net on, it was a wee bit of hassle lining them up and getting used to how you did that, but we ‘swam’ it very easily,’ said MacGillivray.

‘One was in the water and we put the other one on round the side.’

[Although not technically a ‘swim through’ system because the fish stay put during the environet changeovers, this term is still used by the farmers to

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describe the procedure.]

There were no fish in the water for the Lochalsh trials, which were conducted over about three months.

‘We did it four to six times, I can’t remember to be exact, to prove that when the growth came on it we could clean it.

‘It wasn’t perfect but we thought we’ll try it again with some fish. So we put some fish in…and then, with the people working the fish, we noticed the buoyancy was changing in the cage.’

With the extra weight of the nets, the handrail couldn’t take the strain and so they took the fish out and went back to the drawing board.

‘The principle was still there so all I had to do was manage a way to balance it on the cage that doesn’t affect the cage, and that’s where the brackets came from.’

That was version five and here the credit goes to AKVA engineer Terry Nolan, who came up with the last piece of the puzzle.

‘The final bracket is the thing that made the difference,’ said MacGillivray.

‘We were trying to figure a way for the handrail to take the weight but the bottom line is it can’t so we just took the weight off it.’

After a couple of brainstorming sessions, Nolan drew what he thought was the best way to achieve what MacGillivray wanted, and AKVA then made a clamp to be attached to the base rather than the uprights of the cage, so that the load is moved through the base and doesn’t damage the pen.

As Marine Harvest moorings manager Arthur Campbell, who coordinates the complicated logistics, said: ‘We went back to people we’ve been working with for years, we trust their opinion and can have a good dialogue with them and we can say, what if we do this and what if we do that.’

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Farm visit – Marine Harvest The first farm to fully test the system was Ornish at Loch Skiport on South Uist, where environets have been fitted to the 12 pens, all two-ring 450mm (pipe) and 100m circumference.

‘It’s working great, Ornish has been going since last June and we’ve not cleaned one net,’ said MacGillivray. ‘The fish are now three to three and a half kilos, it’s the best gill health they’ve had in that site. It had a poor history of gill health.’

It is specifically PGD (proliferative gill disease) that is being prevented with the environets, he said.

‘When you’re cleaning the net and you’re cleaning the hydroids and everything else that’s growing on it, you break it up into small particles which go in the gills…that’s the damage we’re trying to avoid.

‘AGD isn’t to do with net cleaning really, although some people see a bit of a link; if the gills are damaged you may get a worse [AGD] infection. Nobody can prove that.’

The environets have also seen the cleaner fish perform better. This was a secondary concern, but keeping the environment clean provides fewer feed sources so the cleaner fish are more likely to pick off the sea lice.

With the success at Loch Skiport, the environets were installed at Portnalong on Skye in February, and will be going into Kingairloch this month. Then the system will be rolled out to Poll Na Gille in Argyll, followed by Greshornish in Skye.

‘They’re all in the plan at the moment, and they all have a history of poor gills,’ said MacGillivray. ‘Hopefully, going forward, we can put it on more sites because it just eliminates net cleaning.

‘The key is you’ve just got to be able to swim it every 14 days, 80 per cent of the time. You’ll get off with November, December, January – maybe a bit of February, other than that you have to swim it.’

He said once the growth on the nets goes past a certain stage it doesn’t die off in the air- ‘it seems to be able to survive the two weeks or whatever, then it gets dirtier and dirtier and you’ve got to power wash it and that’s not good. We learnt that with the steel pens.

‘The good thing about the environets is you’re not actually taking it off, you’re killing it because you’re taking it out in the air, anything that’s on the net is dead and you put it back in and it just falls down.

‘Whereas if you’re cleaning the net it’s like cutting your grass – you’ve just trimmed it because the seeds are still there and there’s still growth on the outside and it just grows straight away the next day.

‘But with an environet it’s got to get re-attached and re-seeded. You’re starting the whole thing again rather than just chopping it down. But you have to do it regularly, it’s a rule that cannot be broken.’

The system can be fitted to any two-ring 450 pen, but since Marine Harvest standardised its specifications, all 100m pens are now 450s, and the 120m pens were already 450s.

‘The question is whether you go to tougher sites and use a 500mm pipe,’ said MacGillivray. If the net is bigger or the cage is bigger, so long as the base unit is bigger, it will be able to adopt the system.

The high energy sites might not be suitable because of the practicalities of changing the nets in more exposed conditions, but MacGIllivray said they might try it on one of these farms and ‘see how it goes’.

They have decided not to put lice skirts on pens with environets, after trying this out in Ornish.

‘It would work with skirts but the skirts get dirty and need to be power washed so it’s a Catch 22. In Ornish we put skirts on, then when they got dirty we changed them but we weren’t going to clean them in situ.

‘But we’ve decided not to skirt them, we think it’s the lesser of two evils. The fact that we get much better performance of cleaner fish in these pens with the environets cancels it out for me. Because Ornsih hasn’t done a lice treatment yet, and it’s got a chequered past.

‘The guys are delighted and it makes them enthusiastic to do the swims. And it’s not hard work, it’s just a process; they go out and do the change, two hours, five men and that’s it done.’

If it’s been so straightforward, why didn’t this solution present itself sooner? MacGillivray said it was tried out in Norway a couple of times and admits it would have been tempting to give up after the Lochalsh trial.

‘When you saw some of the issues we had in the early days, it would be easy to just walk away and say it can’t be done.

‘It’s taken a year past last Christmas, a year and a half, but obviously we’ve got day jobs as well! I might have been the one driving it and pushing it but without Iain Fraser (‘Faggy’) and Iain Fraser (‘Floppy’) and Arthur doing a lot of the groundwork for me, then it would have taken so much longer.’

And the project, now getting patented, wouldn’t have gone anywhere without the backing of Marine Harvest Scotland managing director Ben Hadfield

Left: The net that has just been pulled out of the pen shows no growth. Opposite: Portnalong manager Kurk Jones oversees the net changeover.

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Net works!

The “ guys are

delighted… they go out and do the change, two hours, five men

”

behind the scheme, after MacGillivray gave a presentation of how the system works to Marine Harvest’s R&D department. If Scotland can get through this cycle with a low FCR and low mortalities, and demonstrate that the health of the fish is better from a gill health point of view, they will get the investment to continue – and the Norwegians might give it a try too. FF

HAVNEVIK

PHOTO: TONY HALL

and operations director Gideon Pringle because, said MacGillivray, ‘we spent half a million pounds before you do anything, they might not have worked. Nets are not cheap’.

The Norwegians have also thrown their weight

Supplier of Innovative Envirocircle nets to Marine Harvest Scotland,

DELIVERING THE DIFFERENCE ® www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

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03/07/2018 10:30:36

Farm visit – Marine Harvest

Learning the ropes Skye team show how it’s done during two-hour changeover

A

T Marine Harvest’s Portnalong site on Skye, six of the 12 circular pens have been fitted with environets since February, and the rest will be equipped in September. On the day Fish Farmer visited, the team were conducting the fortnightly ‘swim throughs’ on each of the pens. It is a process that takes five staff two hours, although the manpower was swelled that day by visitors from Kingairloch, who were literally learning the ropes from the now seasoned Skye crew.

Kingairloch will be the next farm fitted with environets, and the team, headed by manager Donnie MacDonald, is already experienced with handling the system on their square cages.

They have observed the process at Portnalong several times as they wait for new 100m circular pens – currently being built by AKVA at its Kishorn facility - to be delivered to their site.

With 12 pens fitted out in Loch Skipport, 12 in Portnalong and eight in Kingairloch, there will soon be a total of 32 of the new environets in operation, said Marine Harvest moorings manager Arthur Campbell.

Portnalong had lain empty for the best part of a cycle because historically it had some health issues. But the environets system has given farm manager Kurk Jones the confidence to restock the farm.

Campbell, who has been with Marine Harvest for 28 years, said: ‘They’re always going to be in a clean net and there’s not going to be any in situ cleaning that’s going to affect the gill health of the fish.’

The principle for operating environets on circles is the same as the squares, now that the mechanics of incorporating them into a plastic pen, without the solid 2m or 2.5m walkway on square pens, has been resolved with sturdy AKVA brackets.

Detachable hydraulic winches are fitted to the four brackets positioned around the pen, to take the weight of the net lifting operation off the hand rail. The posts are 2m high, the optimum height, said Campbell.

One person operates each of the four winches, with the fifth member of the team checking the clean net to make sure it doesn’t snag.

The manual labour involves lifting sections of the net and snapping the hooks in place, and ensuring no fish have been caught up in the net’s folds. But the heavy work is done by the winches - the days of brute strength on fish farms have gone, said Campbell, and staff today are technicians.

The power for the winches comes from the

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They’re “always

going to be in a clean net and there’s not going to be any in situ cleaning

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Learning the ropes

workboat Betty Bheag, which is on an 18-month contract from Feorlig Marine in Mallaig to help with the swim throughs. But power packs on board a smaller Polarcirkel would do the job too, said Campbell.

There are four lifts to move the environet from one side of the pen to the other. The first lift gives the crew access to the internal ropes – 16 in total.

‘These pens work slightly differently from a conventional pen,’ said Campbell. ‘Because they get swum every two weeks – normally we’d have a slider weight system and we’d tie a rope into the slider weight. We still operate with a slider weight system to weight the side of the net, keep the tension, but we actually have quick release hooks so the guys lift it up, undo the hook and we don’t have to rely on tying it properly; it’s a no fail system.’

A chain is attached to a 4.5 tonne ring that sits at 18m, and on the chain is a link that is tied to Opposite: Arthur Campbell the base of the net. When the team want to and Kurk Jones; it’s a no fail system. Above: work on the net they pull a rope that raises it.

Four winches do the ‘They lift the slider weights up, then disconheavy lifting. Right: Quick nect them, then they have internal ropes that release hooks are easier go down to the base and into the middle, from than tying on the ropes. the middle back and all the way back up again,’ said Campbell.

‘That’s your four stages, and you have rings all the way down, and a rope that has a plastic ring on the end of it that the guys can just grab.

‘Once you’ve done that, you reconnect all the weights and the clean net you’re putting in the

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water still has its links on it so you just click them in.’

Some aspects of the square pen system have been retained - the winch heads, for example, are the same ones they’ve used for 12 years – and thanks to the standardisation programme in the business, they don’t have to replace all the pens to accommodate the new environets.

‘If your existing pen is a two ring 450 then it can be adapted to take these environet posts,’ said Campbell.

‘We need to have the 450 because we need the additional floatation, because you’re adding in the weights of the brackets, and the weight of the additional net. It would work in a two ring 400 but when you’ve got five people working on it as well, it’s better to have that extra.’

Marine Harvest has been moving away from HDPE and back to nylon netting, which is more pliable and better suited to the environets, said Campbell – ‘it’s not about the cost, but more about the day to day

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Farm visit – Marine Harvest

Feorlig Marine Ltd Feorlig Marine Ltd. are delighted to assist Marine Harvest Scotland in producing top quality salmon. We pride ourselves in innovation, reliability and success.

Arranmore Mallaig Inverness shire PH41 4QN Neil: 07803 933595 John: 07876 197809 feorligmarine@gmail.com

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handling’. The investment in the new envrionets has been significant but Campbell said the system is cost effective compared to the cost of cleaning conventional nets.

‘If you were to take the same pen and put in nets that were anti-fouled and then you have to service these anti-fouled nets every time they are changed, that’s a big cost.

‘Once you’ve paid for the cage modifications for your first cycle that’s them paid for, for however long you want to run the system. You just change the nets every five, six years, whenever the nets start to deteriorate and go below the level of Code of Good Practice.’

The COGP states that the nets have to be 60 per cent of the breaking strain of when the material was new.

‘We always reserve the right to extend the life of the net if somewhere like this it spends half its life out of the water. You would just make more stringent tests as you were getting to that five-year time period.

‘We’ve had nets we’ve had in the water for five years and they’re still meeting 70 per cent of the breaking strain of a new net; that’s environets we’ve been using in the south region [square pens] and I fully expect in five years’ time we’ll come back to these nets and say, we could run another cycle here.’

At the end of the cycle the nets will be taken off and sent to one of the net service stations, for inspection and any repairs, before getting a certificate to go back in the water again.

Kurk Jones said the environets are checked thoroughly every fortnight during the changeover, which also saves diving costs.

The netting has a UV inhibitor and because the top couple of metres have been dipped black (to reduce visual impact) that also protects it from the elements. But, as Campbelll said, when it’s bunched up around the cage, it’s fairly compacted so there is less exposure to sunlight.

‘It’s concertinaed … and we don’t find we get very much degradation over the years.’

Jones has double stocked six pens and when the fish grow they will be graded and thinned out to the other six pens.

He has 110,000 fish in each pen, just over four or five months’ old when Fish Farmer visited in mid- June, with an average weight of 350g, after arriving from the Lochailort hatchery as 70g smolts. Jones will introduce wild caught wrasse

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Learning the ropes into all the pens, with seven per cent stocking density, as soon as he gets enough supplies. He has not needed to do any anti-sea lice mechanical treatments so far, and just uses in-feed Slice for a caligus treatment.

There are also two freshwater reservoir pens at Portnalong, lined by Botngaard tarpaulins and fed by water running off the hill. Marine Harvest now deploys this system at several of its sites to provide water to the wellboat, having trialled it first at Seaforth in the Outer Hebrides.

Portnalong is Jones’ first farm. Skye born and bred, he joined Marine Harvest straight from school and worked on the square pens at Sconser before being promoted to trainee manager at Cairidh for three months, ahead of his appointment as farm manager.

The two-hour changeover at the first pen, overseen by Jones, has gone smoothly and he notes how clean the net is when it eventually comes out of the water.

‘We had bad gill health issues in the past, with the water quality, phytoplankton and micro jellies,’ he said. ‘Hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity to put that behind us. At least, having the environets here gives us a better tool in the box for fighting it.’ FF

Opposite: Weight lifting. Right: (Clockwise) Kingairloch manager Donnie MacDonald, who has been at Marine Harvest for 30 years, learning about the new nets from young Portnalong farm technician Eilidh Wright; the Betty Bheag; final inspection.

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03/07/2018 10:33:25

Aquavison 2018 – Meeting Tomorrow Today

Feeding the future Norway forum has global focus as shrimp and tilapia farmers join salmon leaders

A

QUACULTURE leaders from across the world gathered in Stavanger in June for the biennial AquaVision conference, held over two days in the city.

Almost 450 participants from 45 countries – including a 45-strong delegation from Chile and around 50 from Australia and New Zealand – heard from keynote speaker Ban-Ki moon, secretary-general of the United Nations from 2007 to 2016.

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden also addressed the conference, held at the Stavanger Concert Hall, on the subject of ‘the Ocean Challenge and SeaBos’, an initiative to save the oceans.

Therese Log Bergjord, CEO of organiser Skretting, welcomed guests at the opening reception, saying: ‘These are crazy times we are living in and we will have to step up if we want to lead because if we do not lead we’ll be led.’

The conference, which drew the CEOs of companies from Tasmania, New Zealand, Chile, India, Norway, the Netherlands, China, and beyond, had as its central theme Meeting

Tomorrow Today.

In a departure from previous years, salmon did not dominate proceedings, and the ascendancy of shrimp and tilapia aquaculture at AquaVision was evident, in the speeches and delegations.

‘The salmon industry is being equalised by emerging markets and exciting development in other species,’ said Log Bergjord, summing up at the end of the two days.

But the key messages – of collaboration and innovation – applied to all sectors. Norwegians were proud of the cooperation between their

industry and government. And although Norwegian aquaculture had seen biological challenges recently, the government was facilitating growth through rewarding innovation.

Log Bergjord said that towards 2030, from the industry looking out, ‘we see hard work on sustainability, a fantastic product at the end of the line, and good collaboration’.

But from the outside looking in, there were concerns over animal welfare, pollution, and medication, all challenging the reputation of the industry.

‘Cross industry, cross nation, cross species collaboration’ was needed to ‘show the inside as we know it’.

‘We need to empower the young, we need to support them, we need to take technology to the next level and create many young ambassadors for the industry,’ said Log Bergjord.

The conference had heard from marketing consultant Ken Hughes, who described the needs of the new consumers and warned that the old ways will not open new doors.

Aquaculture ‘benefits the planet’ says UN chief THE world is going through pronounced changes which will have implications for aquaculture businesses, the former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told delegates at the AquaVision conference in Stavanger.

During his keynote speech, he outlined challenges to the post Second World War international order, saying ‘protectionism and tariffs are being advanced and populist nationalism is threatening democracies…and our climate continues to drastically change’.

But the aquaculture industry is ‘laudably responding to changing global trends’, such as climate change, the state of our oceans, population growth and urbanisation.

‘I salute your sustained efforts in this regard,’ he said. ‘I also applaud your driving sense of social responsibility in pursuing growth and profits in step with the international community’s collective efforts to achieve SDGs (sustainable development goals) and reduce your carbon footprint.

‘Healthy oceans are essential for sustaining a healthy planet and healthy lives. Your industry is extremely important for international efforts to con-

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Above: Ban Ki-moon

serve and carefully manage our oceans and seas.’

Aquaculture is now the fastest expanding sector of food production, accounting for almost 50 per cent of the world’s fish that we consume, according to the FAO. This directly combats overfishing and helps enhance global food security and progress on the SDGs, said the former UN chief.

The UN’s sustainable development goals promote responsible economic growth and social inclusion. But the private sector, including aquaculture professionals, is necessary if all 17 goals are to be delivered.

He also recognised that aquaculture has

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Feeding the future

Princess champions ‘crucial’ businesses

“

‘We need to apply this insight to our world to remain relevant,’ said Log Bergjord. ‘We need to be fast, we need to be interesting, we need to be authentic.’

She also highlighted the ideas generated by young entrepreneurs, who had presented their pioneering projects to delegates (see page 40), and were making the most of the tools that are becoming available to aquaculture.

The industry was taking brave steps to tackle its challenges, with big data, machine learning, biotech, genetics, new raw materials, extending shelf life.

‘So much is going on, these are all different types of innovation that can move our industry forward. It’s exciting to hear from young entrepreneurs and I would encourage you all to take the responsibility and help them get to the next level,’ said Log Bergjord.

‘It all comes back to feeding the future in a sustainable way. I believe we’ve come quite a long way – think about all we’ve seen, we’ve seen innovation, we’ve seen scale-ups, we’ve seen speed, we’ve seen commitment, and a lot of passion.

‘Remember, we are a young industry. We have a great story to tell so let’s keep on telling it.’ FF

Change will come through collaboration and innovation in the industry

”

Opposite: Delegates came from as far as Australia and New Zealand. Above: Industry leaders. Below: Therese Log Bergjord.

All AquaVision 2018 photographs by Jan Inge Haga

helped combat food insecurity, to alleviate poverty and improve diet, trade and employment around the world.

‘As close to 90 per cent of our oceans’ fishing stocks are full or overfished and over 20 of the world’s top 30 fish consuming nations are categorised by the United Nations as low income food deficit countries.

‘Thus aquaculture’s prominent role will surely continue to grow and benefit both our planet and our people.’

Ban Ki-moon told the international audience of the need to work together to ‘change the world’.

The aquaculture industry is ‘centrally positioned’ in an age of global innovation and interconnectivity of people, businesses and cultures.

‘Continue to play your part in helping the United Nations achieve its sustainable development goals.

‘Keep striving to sustainably expand global food production, go further in the sharing of essential knowledge and best practices and continue a strong cooperation, both within your industry and outside of it in a manner that transcends borders for the benefits of our oceans and our planet.’

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SWEDEN’S heir to the throne showed she could match the environmental credentials of her UK counterpart when she addressed the AquaVision conference.

Crown Princess Victoria was the star speaker on day two of the event, which is aimed at aquaculture leaders, and her message was ‘we must stop treating our oceans as waste bins’.

Around 700 marine species are threatened by plastics in the sea and by 2050 the oceans could contain more plastic than fish, she said.

Princess Victoria was representing SeaBOS – Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship – an organisation in which she plays an active role.

It has brought together a high calibre collective of international seafood companies, both from the fishing and aquaculture sectors, with Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Cargill and Skretting all involved.

‘The corporate sector is often accused of defending the status quo but there are a growing number of examples proving the opposite, that business teaming up with science can be a powerful driver for change,’ said Princess Victoria.

SeaBOS has brought on board 10 companies that are normally ‘fierce competitors’.

‘They are working together, leading the global transformation towards sustainable seafood production,’ said Princess Victoria.

She told the aquaculture representatives present at the conference that their business ‘is and will be crucial in feeding the world’s growing population - in other words, we need you.

‘To ensure a healthy future for all, we need a healthy ocean; therefore, I’m glad to see you taking action for a sustainable seafood industry, finding new solutions that are both

innovative and commercially viable.

And by doing so, you are leading the way for others within your industry and outside.

‘In the fight against global poverty, inequality and climate change, the global [UN sustainable development] goals, they are a powerful tool to inspire change.

‘But let’s not forget the goals in themselves don’t change the world, people do…you do.’

Knut Nesse, the soon to retire CEO of Nutreco and chairman of SeaBOS, explained that the group’s vision is to simulate ‘transformative change towards ocean stewardship’.

The industry and private sector should take a bigger role for ocean stewardship and sustainability and it was important that SeaBOS is CEO led.

He said not only did the organisation bridge the gap between the farmed and wild caught sectors, but its member companies also straddled the gulf between the western world and Asia.

‘To bridge that world takes a little bit of effort in all humbleness,’ he admitted but said the focus was on meeting the goals established when SeaBOS was set up in November 2016.

While there will be a more ‘future looking agenda’ in one or two years, for now the objectives are reducing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing and eliminating modern slavery; improving transparency and traceability in the global seafood chain; working with governments to improve regulations; and monitoring and tracking progress and learning from successful industry sustainability initiatives.

Four task forces will work on these goals and there will be a meeting in Tokyo in September to assess achievements so far.

Above: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden

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03/07/2018 10:37:22

Aquavison 2018 – Entrepreneurs

Cutting edge companies Six start-up businesses explain how they are transforming aquaculture technology technology in two main shrimp species, one freshwater and one marine, but its main business focus at the moment is freshwater shrimp.

When males are removed, the full growth potential of the females is unleashed. Also, females are more socially passive so if the males are eliminated the culture can be intensified. And females tend to be much more uniform.

‘Males are basically trouble for the farmer – they’re dominant, aggressive – a lot of the females’ energy will be directed towards growth if the males are eliminated,’ said Shechter.

Enzootic’s technology uses the natural sexual plasticity of crustaceans – they have the ability to become male or female regardless of their genetic composition.

Shechter said he believes their technology – parental cell transplantation – is the only all female shrimp technology out there. The female has two chromosomes (W,Z) while the males have Z, Z. Enzootic was able to produce super females with two WW sex chromosomes which, when they are sent IX innovative companies with the potential to out to the hatcheries, are mated with any male and transform the aquaculture industry pitched can only produce all female populations. their products and concepts at AquaVision in In freshwater trials, the all female population was the search for new collaborators and partners. uniform, bigger, with up to 36 per cent more in the From Israel to France, from Norway to California, total crop – ‘we were able to intensify culture by up they represent the cutting edge of young ag-tech to four times the traditional mixed population’, said businesses, covering feed alternatives, genetics, Shechter. disease control and the supply chain.

They were introduced by Adam Anders of Anterra Capital, a venture capital spin-off of Rabobank. He said that when Anterra was established in 2009, A product that can extend the there were 300 million venture capital dollars shelf life of fresh fish has the invested in food and agriculture entrepreneurs potential to transform the globally. Last year, that number was $10 billion.

Anterra has about 4,000 companies in a database supply chain, reduce food waste and cut carbon and 170 fall into the aquaculture sector. From emissions. those, they selected 30 and then Nutreco and BluWrap has developed and Skretting invited six to make presentations. patented a modified atmosphere technology that demonstrated a dramatic increase in Growing super females shelf life when tested on Norwegian salmon, said First up was Assaf Shechter, CEO and co-founder Tim Shaw of the Wheatsheaf Group, a majority of Israeli based company Enzootic, which has proshareholder in BluWrap. duced all female populations of shrimp.

Moving fresh product to market fast is financially Sex in shrimp farming defines almost every paand environmentally expensive. Often it’s air rameter – growth, uniformity, FCR, behaviour- yet freight and carries a high risk of wastage, said we still predominantly grow mixed sex populations, Shaw. You could freeze but freezing can be energy said Shechter. and time intensive and can also degrade the Enzootic has developed a monosex, all female technology and is proposing to shift from a conven- quality of the product.

BluWrap’s modified atmosphere technology tional, traditional mixed sex population into a more takes the protein and seals it within a stable ultra efficient monosex, all female population. low oxygen atmosphere. With hydrogen ‘acting The company has implemented its all female

S

The technology has been commercialised since 2017 and Enzootic is supplying its broodstock – which are good for three or four spawns- to hatcheries worldwide.

Lobster on demand Producing portion size lobsters for a hungry market has the potential to generate extremely high profits, said Asbjorn Drengstig, CEO and founder of Norwegian Lobster Farm.

Farming lobsters is challenging because they are cannibals; if you farm them you need to provide individual compartments because they eat their siblings straight after hatching.

‘When we started, people said it’s not possible to do land based lobster farming,’ said Drengstig, who proved them wrong with what he claims is the world’s first land based RAS lobster farm.

The company, set up in 2000, went through much trial and error before its first ‘semi commercial’ production of two tonnes. A fire in 2011 destroyed the farm but with EU funding ‘we licked our wounds and we came back’.

They turned their technical innovation into a value chain innovation, with the aim of selling live to high end consumers at the highest possible price.

The lobsters are farmed in 20 degree C recirculated water and from day one they are fed pellets to stop them eating their siblings.

Doubling the shelf life of fresh fish

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as the scavenger’, it uses fuel cells to reduce and monitor oxygen during transport, stopping the natural processes that normally cause spoilage.

BluWrap, whose CEO is Ola Strand, has worked with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for the past two years, trialling its modified atmosphere on salmon. The results show it can improve the shelf life of fresh Norwegian salmon from 14 days to 28.

‘You put the protein in the low oxygen atmosphere of BluWrap for 14 days and you take it out and you have another 14 days of shelf life – as if it’s just come off the slaughter line,’ said Shaw. ‘It’s almost as if you’ve just arrested time.’

Shaw said the estimated the cost in exporting fresh salmon to the US could be reduced from 10-12 NOK per kilo by air freight to 2.5 NOK ocean freight.

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Cutting edge companies The lobsters, said Drengstig, like it in the compartments and they grow, so the farm can produce a reliable supply. It is a modular system – ‘If one cage works, one row works, if one shelf is working, then one rig is working, then you can just multiply it’.

There is a high degree of robotics and automation because labour is expensive in Norway, said Drengstig – ‘we have developed feeding robots, harvesting robots, grading robots’ – and the farm can be run from anywhere in the world.

The business concept is portion size lobster, harvested at 20-22cm and around 300g, not matured and therefore smoother in taste and texture, which increases their price.

‘We are the only company in the world that has succeeded in closing the value chain for farming lobsters so there’s a lot of potential to develop this into an industry. And there is a high demand – there’s a deficit of lobster in the market, especially for European lobster.’

Having validated the technology in its pilot plant, Norwegian Lobster Farm is now about to scale up to commercial production. Drengstig estimates the cost of setting up a rig would be NOK 10 million. The concept is high risk but high profit, and ‘it can be an extremely high profit if you’re able to penetrate the market and get the right pricing per item or per kilo’.

‘We’re doing something no one has ever done, we feel like we’re doing something radical in the aquaculture industry, and we can have lobster farms anywhere, or mostly anywhere, in the world.’

Oral delivery targets disease A company developing the first orally administered treatment for viral diseases hopes to provide an effective solution for improving health management.

Israeli based ViAqua Therapeutics is targeting shrimp aquaculture, which can lose up to 20 per cent of production to disease epidemics, such as white spot syndrome. Currently, there is no effective method to treat such viral diseases.

Shai Ufaz, CEO and co-founder of ViAqua, said the company’s approach is based on silencing key genes of the virus using a method called RNA interference, or RNAi, which is similar to vaccination.

The delivered RNA marks the viral RNA and triggers the protection mechanism that destroys the virus and blocks it from spreading.

In trials against WSS virus, ViAqua injected an RNA sequence produced in the lab into shrimp, with excellent results, said Ufaz.

The RNA show high efficacy against the WSS virus, with 87-99 per cent survival in the treated group compared to zero per cent in the untreated group.

‘But you can’t inject billions of shrimp a day so the real challenge is the delivery. And for shrimp and other small fish oral delivery is the only effective solution.’

The concept behind the ViAqua solution is particle formulation. For each virus they select and produce a specific RNA sequence and combine it with their specially developed carrier to form particles.

These particles, together with other materials, form ViAqua’s innovative, safe, non GMO feed grade formulation. This comprises concentrated and stable RNA particles which are then integrated into shrimp feed for simple administration.

Recent ‘breakthrough results’ proved the concept by showing 80 per cent silencing of the target gene by oral delivery of ViAqua’s proprietary formulation, said Ufaz. ViAqua’s technology can address different viruses in shrimp and in

We’re “ doing something no one has ever done

”

Opposite: Adam Anders of Anterra Capital.

Above: Assaf Shechter of Enzootic.

Silicon Valley approach to salmon farming Aquabyte is taking a Silicon Valley approach and applying computer vision and machine learning to aquaculture, said Bryton Shang, CEO and founder.

The company is focused on building biomass and sea lice counting software, targeted initially at salmon farming. It has a team in San Francisco of computer vision and machine learning researchers and software engineers, as well as a team in Norway that is going out to the farms to apply the technology.

It will be able to determine the size of the fish, the visual health

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the future it can be tailored for other aquaculture challenges.

The company plans to sell its formulation to partners to develop the final feed product, and has recently entered into a partnership with Skretting.

This, said Ufaz, ‘will contribute significantly to bringing our first joint product to the market’.

‘We need insect solutions’ The pioneer of French insect meal company Ynsect said he had been fascinated by creepy crawly world since he was a small boy.

Now Antoine Hubert is operating one of the world’s leading players in the insect for feed market, producing a premium ingredient for aquaculture from meal worms.

After two years running a demonstration plant, Ynsect is now ready to build a commercial facility, and next year will construct a factory with the capacity to produce 25,000 tonnes of proteins per year. The ultimate goal is to produce one million tonnes a year, with 15 plants by 2028.

‘You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one,’ joked Hubert, acknowledging the growing competition in this market, which he believes is ‘excellent’ for the sector. ‘There is room for everyone. We need all the solutions and we work with our colleagues in the EU on the regulatory issues we face in Europe,’ he said.

Their platforms are different but all the products will have life on the market and we’ll find all these ingredients in future feeds, said Hubert. FF

train the of the fish in algorithms to terms of the learn to idennumber of sea tify the fish on lice, and how their own. hungry the fish ‘Over time is. The biomass our platform estimation and will include sea lice counting other types machine takes of algorithms footage from to determine the pen with the appetite underwater of the fish, cameras.

Above Bryton Shang behavioural ‘We get expert detection, being able to uniquely annotators and fish farmers to help identity each individual in a pen and us identify the fish and, over time,

do that on the same hardware.

‘The idea is to eventually be able to use this data for feed optimisation… feed manufacturers will be able to give their customers feeding algorithms to tell them how to optimally use and feed the fish.’

Shang said the Aquabyte system will be one tenth the cost of other biomass and sea lice counters. ‘It leverages the existing infrastructure of the farm, using the feeding cameras, so there’s no extra cage furniture in the pen, and the simple computer at the barge will be able to compute all the computer vision algorithms.’

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03/07/2018 10:40:59

AquaVision 2018 – Shrimp

Change the game Global industry should follow Ecuador’s race to the top

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HE success of the shrimp industry in Ecuador prompted aquaculture leaders in the country to establish an international collaboration known as the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership.

‘We felt we had a story to tell the world,’ Jose Antonio Camposano, executive president of the National Chamber of Aquaculture of Ecuador, told the AquaVision conference.

He is on a mission to improve the quality of farmed shrimp and transform the sector from a ‘race to the bottom’ to a ‘race to the top’.

He said the shrimp industry globally had been on the receiving end of negative press coverage.

‘Why haven’t we taken concrete actions to change this? Even more, why haven’t we taken concrete actions to change what I think is the trajectory of our industry? I think I know why. I think we have been playing the wrong game.

‘We have dedicated a vast amount of resources to produce more every year, which is okay, but the thing is that we’re cutting unnecessary corners in the process.

‘We react pretty much only when an alert appears or when a new market requirement must be met. Consumers know very little about what we do or how we do it. But what is worst is that they fear our practices.’

While there are regulations, Camposano said not everybody complies with them and there is little or no differentiation between producing countries.

He said that with decreasing prices, quality is sacrificed over production volume. Where environmental and social practices are jeopardised, values tend to be sacrificed and no one wins.

‘The wrong game I said we’ve been playing is called the race to the bottom.

This is not a catch phrase or slogan I’ve made up for this presentation. I think it is a reality, and we must address it urgently for the sake of our industry.

‘We must stop dedicating our resources to the sole purpose of compliance to an extensive list of ever growing market requirements and certification schemes.

‘We must act now and change the game we’ve been playing for so long, and change must not be driven by market trends and market requirements.

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Above: Jose Antonio Camposano. Left: Camposano with Skretting CEO Therese Log Bergjord

Change shouldn’t be motivated even by authorities and regulations and, definitely, reputational crisis should not motivate change, that’s just reacting too late.

‘Change in our industry must be driven by a shared vision founded in our values by our commitment as leaders to demonstrate measurable performance, and not just good practices that have proven to be sufficient in helping us shape the future of aquaculture in the right direction.’

He said he is convinced that change- from a race to the bottom to a race to the top – is possible because he witnessed it in Ecuador two years ago.

‘After the previous AquaVision we held a board of directors meeting and two members shared their insights about presentations they saw here, including from the Global Salmon Initiative, which addressed some of the issues related to the sustainability of their industry ‘They pointed out that the misuse of antibiotics in aquaculture was a severe problem that needed to be addressed.’

Ecuador has been able to increase aquaculture in a sustainable way, avoiding the use of antimicrobials, because it has the lowest density production system in the world.

‘The way we manage ponds in a productive way, we don’t need to use medication to get great production.

‘We decided that we had a story worth telling to the world. After two years of dedicated work, Ecuador launched the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership as a sign of its commitment to change the vision,’ said Camposano.

‘The aquaculture industry can work in pre-competitive manner to find solutions. Upcoming issues

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Change the game are discussed to avoid future impacts.’

The goal is to raise standards for the global shrimp industry, and to gain ASC certification, and the SSP involves a scale-up programme to help less advanced members of the industry to comply with international standards.

“

‘SSP was our vision and now it is our promise. It is our commitment to change and improvement, and if we can do it, so can you. Change can’t be done without help, but in collaboration from several players- government, universities, NGOs. But it must be industry led.’

Best of both worlds as Nutreco plans India feed facility

We react pretty much only when an alert appears or when a new market requirement must be met

Targeting middle class customers CHINA is the largest buyer of Ecuador shrimp and although there is not great interest among ordinary consumers in sustainability issues, Jose Antonio Camposano said that is changing with the growth of the middle classes.

‘There are a lot of people coming into the middle class, about 10-15 million people, and they are becoming more aware about the provenance of seafood. They want to eat imported seafood and drink imported wine and they have the means to do it.

‘That is a different market to the mainstream market which is concentrated on local production and doesn’t care about sustainability.’

Asked how the focus can be switched from profitability to sustainability, with so many global producers coming into the industry, Camposano said not reacting to market trends doesn’t mean the shrimp industry’s initiatives shouldn’t be market driven.

‘We shouldn’t be worrying about the vast amount of

shrimp coming on to the market because it’s a different segment. We’re trying to build up a new segment or increase the volume that is already there but nobody is addressing it.’

The Sustainable Shrimp Partnership is developing a campaign to highlight its benefits and Ecuador has some experience running such initiatives, after a promotion for its head-on shrimp.

‘We came up with a campaign four years ago called the Best Shrimp in the World, a local campaign in Ecuador to help improve the image of the

”

industry within the country.

We couldn’t promote the product if the people in the country weren’t proud of the product.

‘The campaign had two objectives, to inform the public and then raise awareness and make the public proud of its industry and it actually worked the other way around.

‘Once we launched the Best Shrimp in the World campaign people were saying, yes of course, we do have the best shrimp, and because they were proud they were eager to learn more about the product.’

Breeding ‘primary driver’ for better farming BREEDING is the primary driver of improvement in shrimp farming, said George Chamberlain, president of the Global Aquaculture Alliance.

There is nothing that can be done in any aspect of aquaculture that has the cumulative benefit of breeding.

‘It is reasonable to expect a 10 per cent improvement every generation – if you were a feed supplier you’d be lucky to get a two per cent improvement. Breeding is super important.’

Farmers breed for growth and resistance to multiple pathogens, and with shrimp, where vaccines don’t work, genetic resistance is an incredible tool, as demonstrated by the Ecuadorians.

Other factors that improve performance included nutrition, with some families of shrimp doing very well on vegetable diets, even better than on fishmeal diets.

On the hatchery side, almost every facility uses live feeds but

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Above: Kamlesh Gupta at AquaVision 2018

NUTRECO has made significant investments in emerging markets recently, in Africa and Ecuador, and this year in India too.

It recently signed a joint venture agreement with West Coast Group- producer of shrimp and tilapiathat will see Nutreco build a feed facility in west India.

Nutreco CEO Knut Nesse said his company expects the plant to open in the first quarter of 2020, and that until it becomes operational, Nutreco’s aquaculture division, Skretting, will supply feed from outside India into the region.

‘I’m delighted that we’re announcing this joint venture,’ Nesse said. ‘Working together with West Coast Group, we’ll be able to ensure we serve the growing needs of the Indian aquaculture industry

while delivering on Skretting’s ambition to further develop [its] warm water species activities.’

West Coast Group chairman Kamlesh Gupta said his company is ‘looking forward to working closely with Nutreco on developing this partnership’.

‘This joint venture strengthens our chain of integrated aquaculture operations and gives us the capabilities we need as we expand,’ he said.

‘Our knowledge of the local market combined with Skretting’s long history of innovation in shrimp and fish feed will ensure customers get the very best of both worlds.’

West Coast is also developing its tilapia operations which, Gupta, said will ‘play an important role in India’s domestic fish consumption’.

while live marine worms stimulate egg production, they are a perfect vector for transmitting disease back into the hatchery.

‘We need substitutes, we need artificial diets that mimic these natural foods, and artificial diets that mimic algae and artemia so that we can automate hatcheries and become much more consistent and prolific.’

At the nursery stage, post-smolt systems for salmon have become all the rage in Norway, and the shrimp farming business is also developing nurseries that take post-larvae shrimp to a larger size and allow more cycles per year and more robust production.

Above: George Chamberlain

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AquaVision 2018 – Young leaders

‘Show that you care’ Next generation tell current CEOs how industry should look in the future

T

HE current leaders of aquaculture companies must be more visible and active in the public debate about the industry if they want to improve its reputation.

This was the message from the next generation of leaders, who held a workshop following AquaVision 2016 to create a vision for how young people wanted the industry to look in 2030.

Outlining the main recommendations from this forum, which brought together people from different parts of society, including the industry, NGOs and young politicians, was Nina Grieg, business development manager of Grieg Seafood.

She told delegates at this year’s AquaVision:‘If we want an improved reputation we need to take action today.’

In Norway, reputation has become a critical issue; it hinders growth, drives cost, and is a reason for many to question whether ocean farming really is a viable industry for the future.That should make it a top management priority and focus, urged Grieg.

She said her own biggest frustration when it comes to reputation is that ‘people believe we don’t care, that we don’t have goals other than the financial ones’.

‘We will not have a better reputation in 2030 if we do not change the way we communicate.We need to start building trust and let people know that we Above: Nina Grieg and care.

Mads Martinsen ‘Building relationships and trust cannot be outsourced to industry organisations or a communication advisor.Trust requires each company to be personal, and it requires us to be visible.’

One or two companies cannot improve the reputation of fish farming,‘we need all of you’, she told the assembled CEOs and management teams from around the world.Although the young leaders had focused on the salmon sector, their recommendations had global relevance, she said.

‘Since we share the same oceans and markets, we need ambassadors across countries and maybe even across species. If we are clear and precise about taking social responsibility we will get a better reputation…we need to give a personal commitment.’

Up on the stage with Grieg was another young leader, Mads Martinsen, managing director of Skretting Norway. He said today’s leaders must empower the young and engage more with schoolchildren.

‘The kids in high school today are hopefully going to be working for our industry in 2030, probably they’re going to be working for an NGO, or being politicians, or being a mum or dad, deciding on what to buy for dinner.

‘So start when they are young, engage with teachers and work together with school authorities, but please do it together because together you are much stronger and more credible than if you are alone.’

Putting money into training programmes was a key recommendation, he said, to enable young people who want to get into the industry to have a chance –‘even if they haven’t studied aquaculture or weren’t born into it, like Nina and myself’.

‘Give the young people already in your organisations the opportunity to be good ambassadors for our industry, give them the opportunity to speak up about our industry.’

Grieg said a very powerful exercise at the workshop was to envision how a strong industry would look in 2030.

‘In 2030 in Norwegian salmon farming, the biological and environmental challenges we have today are solved, fish welfare is improved, integrated multitrophic aquaculture is the standard.’

By 2030, the industry will have full control of biomass and will be able to treat fish individually. But most importantly, she said,‘our industry and aquaculture is truly regarded the most sustainable way to produce food’.

In 2030, the sector will be proactive, with self-imposed and ambitious environmental goals, and short term crisis management will be a rare case.

“beWeverywill

disappointed if the problems that are presented in 2030 are the same as we have today

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”

She revealed that 60 per cent of the leaders at the workshop agreed that the aquaculture industry fights fires instead of working productively.

‘I believe this has improved quite substantially in Norway in the last years. But the long term wellbeing of our industry needs more attention towards 2030 if we want to reach the envisioned scenario.’

Key to achieving a valuable and viable industry is aiming for a higher innovation rate and a genuine and targeted focus on sustainability.

Martinsen said the way to reach these goals was to join forces and collaborate. Forty years ago there was a lot of collaboration between companies, the government and researchers, but he didn’t believe that was still there in Norway.

Some farming regions of the country do significantly better than others, and sometimes that is to do with nature, but often it is to do with collaboration.

In these successful regions they not only talk but share their problems and their production data.

This allows them to come to the best actions on their issues. Sharing production data is getting more and more relevant, with digitalisation, machine learning and so on.

Companies that share production data, not only internally but externally, are really being open and transparent and people have a better chance to understand what the industry is about.

Grieg said ‘we challenge you to collaborate more’.

‘We want this industry, which we’re really proud of, to be more visible.’

Let people know, she said, that ‘we care and that they can trust us to solve the challenges that we have today and that we will get in the future’.

When her generation is leading the industry in 2030, she will be ‘very disappointed if the problems that are presented in 2030 are the same as we have today.’ FF

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

03/07/2018 10:44:54

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02/07/2018 12:15:15

AquaVision 2018 – Africa

Victory for Lake Victoria How fastest growing tilapia farm is improving local diets

A

N American banker who recently moved into Africa’s ‘compelling’ aquaculture industry believes the eastern equatorial belt could produce one million tonnes of tilapia, at a conservative estimate.

Joseph Rehmann has been operating Victory Farms on Lake Victoria in Kenya for just two years and he describes it as Africa’s fastest growing, and the world’s most sustainable, tilapia farm.

Already, he runs the biggest hatchery in the country, if not in east Africa, and is confident of increasing his current production of 5,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes.

Victory Farms is a vertically integrated business, with its hatchery, nursery, grow-out ponds in the lake and a sales and distribution network.

‘We put this hatchery in and within its first year it’s already the largest in Kenya or east Africa and sometime early next year it will be the largest one in sub-Saharan Africa,’ Rehmann told delegates.

‘We combine recirculatory pond technology with open water systems on Lake Victoria and together those two technologies enable us to build scale very quickly.’

Scaling up was the focus of his talk. Although relatively new to the aquaculture sector, he has a vision for what it can bring to Africa, in terms of employment, nutrition and offsetting carbon emissions.

He hopes to expand his tilapia farms throughout the region, in partnership with other organisations, and is looking for support in capital, milling, genetics and fish health.

‘We have plans to scale up this model across sub-Saharan Africa, we don’t see any reason why what we’ve done in less than two years of operation can’t be done in multiple regions.

‘We look at a

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partnership model, we can’t do everything ourselves. Our systems are very strong but we need to bring in partners to help us run other aspects of the business.’

They are involved in a probiotics programme with the University of Stirling, and have brought in electricians from Europe – ‘critically important to a business operating in remote Africa’.

Victory Farms was facilitated by the Kenyan government which, Rehmann said, moved quickly to help him get up and running.

‘We found that the government was extremely supportive and welcomed us in. By the time we submitted our applications, within 24 hours we had our permit. I don’t think you’d find that level of speed in most of the other geographies in the world.

‘The government, especially at the senior level, is very interested in addressing some of the food security and employment issues they have.’

Africa’s population today is roughly around one billion and that will double and then triple over the course of the next 75 years. Couple that with an extremely low consumption of animal protein and we’re looking at one of the biggest supply demand gaps in protein in the world today, said Rehmann, a New Yorker who is now based in Nairobi.

In Lake Victoria, and also across a number of other lakes and rivers in the region, the supply side has completely collapsed – perch is down 70 per cent and tilapia is down 90 per cent over the past few decades. The food sources the local populations used to live on are more or less completely depleted.

In the last several years this has meant that a massive influx of fish from China and other countries has come into the Kenyan and other African markets to meet the supply gap, but that presents concerns related to food security and job creation, and the environmentally costly global cold chain.

‘What are the comparative or competitive advantages in the region? We are strong on land, on labour, on water, on climate,’ said Rehmann.

On the downside, it’s an expensive place to do business and there are geographical challenges in terms of logistics. But he believes if some of the

Above: Joseph Rehmann.

Left: Farmed tilapia.

Opposite: Egypt is currently the biggest aquaculture producer in Africa.

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Victory for Lake Victoria

challenges can be solved, the region should be a net producer of food by a significant margin, whereas the opposite is true today.

typically start selling fish until about 1-2pm.’

He replaced these inefficiencies by putting fish in the markets nearer to where the sales women live, and word of mouth has brought the customers to the sellers.

‘We’ve set up eight or nine of these around Nairobi and we’ll probably set up about nine more.

The women prefer to walk five minutes than travel for hours.’

Rehmann has not gone after the supermarket chains but concentrated on what is the core consumer, with 90 to 95 per cent of Victory Farm tilapia sold into the slums in Nairobi.

Malnutrition is rife in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, because of a lack of affordable protein.

‘When we enter a market we bring the price of tilapia down by 30 to 40 per cent. It goes from above the price of beef to below the price of beef.

We’re still a little bit more expensive than chicken, but if we scale up a bit more we’ll soon be cheaper than chicken.

‘Last year we produced 300,000-400,000 meals… when we talk about providing a high protein meal it is for someone who has a very severe protein deficit. This year we’ll serve 2.5 million meals and next year – because the fish stocking rates are already underway – we’re on track to do around 10 million. This is starting to have a real impact on the health and livelihoods of people in these communities.’

become the most sustainable tilapia farm on the planet.

‘What I hear often is how businesses are trying to reduce the amount of CO2 they emit to hit targets set long ago. We don’t think those are relevant metrics for us anymore. At Victory Farms we’re focusing on how we can have a carbon negative footprint.

‘How can we go about building a carbon negative business? Solar is easy here, where we get 330 days of sun a year. But installing it is logistically challenging.

‘We can convert our waste into energy, and are working with organisations to replant indigenous trees, and looking at how to source feed in a better way, something we talk to Nutreco and Skretting about quite often.

‘The FAO estimates that 20 per cent of CO2 emissions are a consequence of human consumption of animal protein production, so we know it’s a major driver of emissions.

‘If the current basket of proteins being consumed changes to include more fish – if people like Victory Farms produces one million tonnes of tilapia – that is more or less going to displace the current basket of proteins.

‘In terms of CO2 emissions the results are phenomenal – on an annual basis, 23 million tonnes of CO2 emissions will be saved because of the reduction of the inefficient converters (cows, goats, and so on).

‘That’s comparable to us offsetting every motor vehicle in Sweden. This can be scaled out in other areas in Africa.’ FF

Operating in Kenya On the farm it can look like chaos, said Rehmann.

When it’s fully operational there are 65 people on the site platform, who are all working.

‘It’s how we do business in Africa, it’s low tech, it’s labour intensive and it’s low capex. What that translates into for us is we don’t have downtime, machines don’t break down, we create employment.

‘When we talk to people in the local communities, employment is always the number one thing they are seeking. On the capex side, we can scale quickly because it’s very easy to add 10 employees.

‘Our business is a great engine for employment.

Sustainability Well before we reached our second anniversary Rehmann said he is confident Victory Farms can we were the largest employer in our county and we see that number continuing to rise pretty dramatically.’

The jobs are also high income for the region. In an AFRICA lags far impoverished village, affected by over fishing and behind Asia in aquaclimate change, entry level jobs (no skill) at about culture production $100 a month and low skill jobs at $200 are very but there is a lot of welcome.

‘These jobs were transforming a few people’s lives potential to grow, said Gareth Johnstone, and now, with hundreds of employees, it’s transdirector of WorldFish. forming the whole valley where we work.’

Aquaculture and One of the big challenges managing a food busicapture fisheries are ness in Africa is with the cold chain, and getting fish respectively 2.3 per to market. Rehmann said during elections last year cent and 9.5 per cent there was political unrest and Victory Farms had to of world supply (10.5 shut down most of its sales locations. million tonnes a year Above: Gareth Johnstone He set up a new model which has propelled the in 2015, of which company to the fastest rate of growth in Kenya and To meet increased aquaculaquaculture is about 1.8 million the largest in east Africa. ture growth, and therefore tonnes). By comparison, Asia ‘And now we’ve entered a new trajectory which demand for fish in the future, accounts for about 90 per cent has allowed us to scale. And we can accelerate that Africa must ensure there are of the global share. again. quality breeds, good quality However, African aquaculture ‘Before we arrived there used to be just two seeds, and skills in hatcheries, production has grown from locations in Nairobi next to each other where you said Johnstone. around five per cent in 2000 to could buy fresh tilapia. We said that doesn’t make ‘We need to invest in any sense, the market women must spend six hours 17 per cent in 2015, a growth research, and we’ll need to rate of about 10 per cent. getting to the market and coming back. They don’t have better genetics underEgypt produces more in terms pinning the industry to select of aquaculture than capture the favourable traits, such as fisheries – about two thirds of resistance to diseases.

Africa’s aquaculture output, fol‘We also need a good policy lowed by Nigeria then Uganda. environment which is enabling Sub-Saharan Africa currently and supportive of the industry.’ produces about one per cent of He said one example of the global share of aquaculture.

How Africa can produce more fish

We found that the “government was

extremely supportive and welcomed us in

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Aquavision - Africa.indd 47

”

growth is Ghana, which has seen a fivefold increase between 2009 and 2014. Enabling factors in this expansion included a dynamic private sector that worked with the government to invest in feed and processing and marketing.

Johnstone said the role of government was critical, especially in helping to improve genetic resources so farmers have reliable breeds from which they can produce from. And he stressed the importance of having small and medium sized enterprises alongside the bigger operations, to stimulate innovation.

Investors might be wary of going into places where there is instability , but it’s about working with the government.

‘You really need to be talking to the economic and planning department and health; look at public campaigns that can increase the awareness of the value of fish.’

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03/07/2018 10:46:41

AquaVision 2018 – Feed

Restarting the blue revolution Collaboration and innovation will deliver promise made 15 years ago

O

UTGOING Nutreco boss Knut Nesse, who recently announced his retirement, opened the twelfth AquaVision by saying that the aquaculture industry is ‘not quite living the blue revolution’.

The phrase, coined in 2003 by the Economist to herald the expected explosion of the sector globally, has become a byword for industry ambitions, but Nesse questioned whether the industry has delivered on the promise of 15 years ago.

In 2014, aquaculture production was bigger than that of the wild catch for the first time, but there had been a levelling out since then.

The shrimp industry was growing fast in the early 2000s, switching species from monodom to vannamei. But in 2009 it was hit by white spot disease and early mortality syndrome, hammering the main producers, including China and Thailand.

The big winners from this were newer entrants, in particular Ecuador, Vietnam and India, but global growth has only been 1.3 per cent due to disease.

‘The key issue for shrimp is to manage diseases in a better way.’

The annual global growth rate in salmon production between 2003 and 2012 was very solid at six per cent, but since then it has stalled.

In Norway, where farmers faced biological problems and climate change, growth had ‘flatlined’ since 2012. The global industry has a growth rate of 1.4 per cent in this time, so there is a need to do things differently in the future.

The same pattern is evident in tilapia farming. This grew 12.5 per cent in the first phase, dropping to 5.3 per cent in the second phase. The big challenge in tilapia might not be diseases, but developing local consumption in Africa and Asia, which is about the growth of the middle classes, said Nesse. And it’s also about consumer confidence in the western world.

Most of the farming today is pretty exposed to the open environment – there is pollution, habitat destruction, pressure from wild fisheries, and sometimes conflict from the wild salmon sector, to use an example from Norway.

Nesse said managing the challenges faced by aquaculture is all about collaboration and innovation, in the entire value chain.

He cited the Global Salmon Initiative as a good example of collaboration because it is industry and CEO led; and the Pincoy Project in Chile, initiated

by Skretting, in which farmers, vaccine manufacturers and genetics companies got together to try to reduce antibiotic usage, particularly in combating Septicemic Rickettsial Syndrome (SRS).

SeaBOS, which combines ten leading aquaculture and fisheries companies (and which he chairs), the

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certification body ASC, and the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership, launched in Ecuador, were three other collaborations highlighted by Nesse.

As for innovation, this was about changes in the way we do things. The Norwegian development licences programme, for example, is about having groundbreaking technologies to solve problems and regain growth.

The incentive is big, said Nesse, because if your application is approved you can get free licences to test new technology. And the system is clearly working because there were 104 applications, of which 14 have been approved so far by the government, 36 have been rejected, and 54 are still under evaluation.

To illustrate the scale of Norwegian innovation, he showed pictures of the Nordlaks 421m ship floating in the open ocean, the biggest ship in the world (the biggest cruise ship is 360m). That will be in production in one year’s time.

And SalMar’s massive Ocean Farm 1, with a depth of 68m and a diameter of 110m, is already in production, the first example of salmon farming in the open ocean.

Such a project, which has the capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes of salmon, takes the industry from the fjords and brings it out into the ocean to give more space for growth in the future.

‘What a lot of companies are doing is going to be some kind of game changer in the next three to five years, I’m really confident about that,’ said Nesse.

Collaboration in general, and new technology enabling new production concepts, will help to support the blue revolution again. FF

“a What lot of

companies are doing is going to be some kind of game changer in the next three to five years

”

Above and left: Nutreco’s Knut Nesse

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03/07/2018 10:47:56

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02/07/2018 12:16:06

Feed – Innovation

BY COLIN LEY

New frontiers Nutreco’s foray into farming marks increase in aquaculture investment

R

ENEWED production growth for salmon farming is one of the priority objectives set by Nutreco NuFrontiers, the newly launched innovation and investment division of the Dutch feed group.

‘There’s been no expansion in salmon output since 2012 due to the industry not having the licence to grow, due to environmental issues,’ said Viggo Halseth, Nutreco’s chief innovation officer.

‘What we’re looking for through NuFrontiers, therefore, is to discover totally new technology which will help producers to overcome these current concerns to enable the sector to start moving forward again.’

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He was speaking during the official launch of NuFrontiers, held during F&A Next, an agri-innovation event run by Wageningen University and Research (WUR) in the Netherlands with the precise aim of connecting agribusiness start-ups with potential investors.

Suitably equipped with EUR 20 million to invest over the next five years in start-ups and scale-ups, Halseth told Fish Farmer that the new division’s prime focus would be on aquaculture, an industry which he said has enormous scope for further growth. In that context, the immediate challenge presented by salmon farming’s six-year standstill will head NuFrontiers’ innovation hit list.

‘We will be looking for opportunities to create and back ‘moonshot’ projects that address major bottlenecks in the feed and food value chain,’ he said. ‘This includes investing in starts-ups and scale-ups which are involved in new technologies, ingredients and formulations, while also entering into partnerships and joint ventures with innovative companies and products across the protein value chain.’

Halseth agreed that working with these types of start-ups was relatively new territory for Nutreco and that the launch of NuFrontiers represented something of a step outside the company’s traditional arena.

‘The fact is, however, that a lot of money is already going into ag-tech and start-ups,’ he said. ‘As a result, a lot of new benefits will emerge in the future and we need to understand what is happening in this area, while also becoming involved in developments that are relevant to our producers and to us as a company.

‘We don’t want to arrive too late into new developments, being forced to settle for a market rather than innovation role. From now on, in fact, we will be seeking to gain access to something unique.’

Although he added that the company doesn’t have ‘major past experience of working with start-ups or scale-ups’, Halseth said he had no doubt that NuFrontiers can make a major contribution, going forward.

‘We have a lot of knowledge concerning how animals and fish, raised under commercial conditions, react to our feeds, as supplied through Skretting and Trouw,’ he said.

‘Innovators know all about new technology, of course, but they often don’t have the capacity to test their ideas on animals or fish under real farming conditions, and they don’t have an efficient route to market. These are the gaps we can fill through our established place in the value chain.’

The selection of aquaculture as the prime focus for NuFrontiers is based on the sector’s relative youth, in comparison with other farmed species, and enormous growth potential.

‘We believe aquaculture has room for much more innovation than agriculture,’ said Halseth. ‘In relation to salmon farming, for example, with no recent growth in output, there are huge needs for innovative solutions to be applied to the environmental issues which are holding it back. These include dealing with sea lice concerns, escapes into the

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03/07/2018 10:49:26

New frontiers

now “onFrom we will be seeking to gain access to something unique

”

Above: Nutreco’s Viggo Halseth, pictured networking at the recent AquaVision conference in Stavanger

wild and the management of farm waste.

‘While production has been standing still, however, consumer demand for salmon continues to grow. That’s why we’re ready to work with start-ups and scale-ups on new developments and with partnerships and joint ventures on sustainable and innovative projects and products.’

Nutreco is already involved in a number of key developments, of course, including a recently announced shrimp production advance being led

by Eruvaka, an India based Internet of Things (IoT) company.

In addition to taking a 25 per cent share in the company, Nutreco is also committed to a commercial partnership to help scale Eruvaka globally. This will build on the IoT company’s work to date concerning its development of connected devices and mobile based decision tools to help fish farmers reduce risk and increase productivity.

In another move, Nutreco sees huge potential for sustainable aquaculture in a company that is converting CO2 into protein for feed, using bacterial bioprocessing.

The firm, Kiverdi, has based its approach on NASA research that aimed to recycle CO2 produced during space travel, Halseth explained.

The aquaculture industry can’t grow on soy protein alone, and products such as Kiverdi’s non-GM microbes offer a new way to extend the aquaculture feed ingredient supply chain, said Halseth.

Current Nutreco investments in innovative salmon projects, meanwhile, include taking a 40 per cent stake in the Norway based Aquantum Leap project, headed by Seafarming Systems, and being

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Feed - Viggo.indd 51

involved in the testing of a new offshore salmon farming concept, headed by Roxel Aqua AS, also Norway based.

‘The Seafarming Systems concept addresses salmon farming’s main challenges of escapes, sea lice and waste,” Halseth told F&A Next delegates. ‘Their development consists of a closed cage system for smolts, fitted with a flexible bottom and escape proof cloth.

‘Later in production, when the fish are large enough, they are moved to a 120m diameter cage that holds 500,000 cubic metres of water. The overall design prevents sea lice from getting into the cage while also allowing new water supplies to be drawn from below the parasite level. It’s also possible to collect 75 per cent of fish waste from these cages.’

Seafarming Systems has said they will potentially invest EUR 145 million in the concept, once it is approved, with Nutreco having the option to co-invest in order to participate in the future value creation of the development.

‘Space is also an issue in salmon farming in that we don’t want production units too close to each other and needing to use the same water,’ said Halseth.

‘Currently, less than two per cent of the world’s oceans are available for aquaculture and most of this is out in the open seas.

‘If we could move production out to more open spaces, therefore, we could increase the farmable area to four to five per cent, which is what our involvement with Roxel Aqua AS is all about, with their offshore farming concept based on using a repurposed ‘jack-up’ drilling rig from the oil industry, surrounded by submersible fish cages.’

Nutreco has applied for 14 development licences in partnership with the Roxel Aqua project.

‘In addition to these current project examples, we’re also working on raw material developments, although they’re not mature enough to be presented publically at present.’

Working from this base, concluded Halseth, the aim for NuFrontiers is to make three to five aquaculture based investments a year, targeting innovation businesses and ideas with a project time-to-market of four years or less.

Such involvement will consist of funding commitments, where necessary, alongside partnership activities based on Nutreco’s market experience and knowledge. FF

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03/07/2018 10:49:50

Feed Tech Challenge

Phage on the world stage Competition winners will help address antimicrobial resistance

BY COLIN LEY

T

WO innovative feed additives, both designed to help farmers tackle infections without the need to use antibiotics, topped Nutreco’s 2018 Feed Tech Challenge.

Created by Canada based Cytophage Technologies and UK company Folium Science, the two products will be developed for use across all farmed species, including aquaculture, with the potential of making significant contributions to the rising public campaign to reduce antibiotic involvement in food production.

The Cytophage development, which won the 2018 competition, consists of a synthetic cocktail of bacteriophage, specially created to prevent and treat infections such as campylobacter, salmonella and E.coli.

The Folium Science solution, which secured one of two runner-up positions, basically ‘tricks’ harmful bacteria into ‘committing suicide’ by harnessing a naturally occurring enzyme.

Challenge winner, Cytophage, located in Winnipeg, will now be given an extended product validation opportunity, courtesy of Nutreco, which will make one of its Dutch research farms available for all necessary trials.

This will test the modern potential of the Canadian company’s development which CEO, Steven Theriault, described during the Challenge final as being

Left: Folium Science CEO Edward Fuchs. Opposite: Cytophage CEO Steven Theriault with Nutreco’s Viggo Halseth.

based on ‘an old idea brought back to life’.

Bacteriophages, which are found everywhere in nature, are viruses that kill bacteria. This was first identified by Felix d’Herelle in 1917 when it was

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Phage on the world stage demonstrated that phages could be used to treat dysentery in humans. Having been sidelined by antibiotics in recent years, however, their potential is now being revisited.

While naturally occurring bacteriophages have an estimated bacteria kill rate of around 60 per cent, the ‘superior’ versions which Cytophage has discovered and developed are claimed to have a kill rate of 100 per cent.

The company also says it can select and develop specific bacteriophages to address targeted infection issues, such as E.coli, and that their selections are more predictable in their impact on harmful bacteria than the phages which are found in nature.

Theriault told the Feed Tech judging panel that he believes his company’s synthetic product is already equipped to go to market, having advanced through ten years of painstaking development to reach its current state.

After subsequently winning the Challenge title, he added: ‘This will allow us to move on to the world stage.’

The company’s plan for commercial development features a first-stop poultry feed additive which they aim to have ready for sale as early as next year. This will be followed by similar products for pigs, ruminants and fish.

Nutreco chief innovation officer Viggo Halseth said phage technology was a hot topic in aquaculture at the moment.

Tricking bacteria to commit suicide Folium Science CEO Edward Fuchs described his company’s in-feed solution to antimicrobial resistance as pretty ‘simple’.

Located in Cambridge, the Folium Science development is based on the use of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology which, Fuchs said, ‘precisely kills bacteria’.

‘We’re basically tricking harmful bacteria into ‘committing suicide’ by harnessing the naturally occurring CAS enzyme,’ he told the Feed Tech judges. ‘It really is as simple as that.’

The company has already run trials in relation to MRSA and E.coli and is now moving on to tests involving salmonella, for which they say they’ve designed a product which will be capable of hitting 98 per cent of all pathogenic salmonella.

‘While we would never claim to be a silver bullet solution to antimicrobial resistance in farming,’ said Fuchs, ‘we believe our products will provide producers with a distinct alternative in their battle to combat unwanted bacteria and so reduce their need to use antibiotics.’

According to its current development timelines, Folium expect to have five products coming to market by the end of 2019, all with a capacity to be delivered as in-feed additives.

Vital solutions ‘The excellent solutions proposed by this year’s Feed Tech Challenge finalists demonstrate the drive we have within Nutreco to play our part in resolving the issue of antimicrobial resistance,’ said Halseth.

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‘I personally believe that antimicrobial resistance is as big a threat to society as global warming, although it doesn’t have that sort of profile at present. If we don’t change what we’re doing, however, more people will die in the future from resistance problems than from cancer.

‘As an industry, therefore, we need to be part of the solution and I’m delighted that our Feed Tech finalists have addressed this issue so fully.’

The 2018 Feed Tech Challenge attracted a starting entry of 52 original proposals, from which ten companies were selected to take part in a twoday assessment event at Nutreco’s headquarters in Amersfoort.

The top three, Cytophage Technologies, Folium Science and the US based animal genomics data developer, Rex Animal Health, advanced to a final public contest, staged as part of F&A Next, a specialist ag-tech innovation event run by Wageningen University and Research (WUR) at Wageningen in the Netherlands. FF

is as “bigThisa threat to society as global warming

”

Traditional farmers face major challenge from alternative proteins ALTERNATIVE proteins are set to deliver increasing competition to farmed meat and fish, with one third of consumers already being ‘actively interested’ in reducing their intake of traditional products.

This was the headline message given to delegates attending F&A Next at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, where it was also forecast that the US plant based meat market will be worth $6 billion by 2022, double its current value.

Growth projections for Europe were equally bullish, with developers confident of

achieving sales worth around $700 million over the next five years.

‘Demand for food derived from alternative proteins is already far greater than many people realise,’ Dan Altschuler Malek, venture partner with New Crop Capital, Washington DC, told the ag-tech innovation gathering.

‘We’ve committed to 28

investments in companies involved in cultured and plant based proteins in the last two years, backing projects in New Zealand, India, Israel and many parts of Europe. Additional current options include investment proposals in Latin America and the US.’ Didier Toubia, CEO of US based clean meat developer, Aleph Farms, said he saw room for everyone in his the future vision for food production.

‘We are not intending to replace conventional products,’ he said, although he did qualify this by adding that his view didn’t include intensive farming systems.

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Feed –News

Student feed start-up wins £100,000 prize A MICROALGAE feed start-up launched by an Edinburgh University student notched up another success when it was awarded £100,000 in the 2018 Scottish EDGE competition, announced on June 14.

Douglas Martin picked up the prize for his novel approach to harvesting omega-3 oils from microalgae grown on wastewater.

The triumph followed news of £500,000 funding he secured to build a pilot plant. MiAlgae aims to revolutionise the animal and fish feed industries with microalgae made from the co-products of whisky.

The company, founded by Martin while a masters student in Edinburgh in 2015-16, grows algae rich in omega-3 and other nutrients using co-products from the whisky distillation process.

The microalgae produced can be used as a raw material for agricultural food products, with the company initially targeting the aquaculture industry.

The £500,000 investment – in equal shares from Equity Gap, the Scottish Investment Bank (the investment arm of Scotland’s enterprise agencies), and the university’s venture fund Old College Capital – will enable the company to expand its team and build a pilot facility for its technology at a whisky distillery.

‘This is a huge deal for us,’ said Martin. ‘This

Above: Douglas Martin of MiAlgae

investment will fund the initial scale-up steps and de-risk our commercial facility. It certainly sets us on track to achieve our ambitions.’

The £500,000 seed investment in MiAlgae follows a series of competition and funding successes.

Martin obtained a Smart: Scotland grant in 2017, has progressed through the EU’s threestage Climate-KIC Accelerator programme hosted at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, has had competition success including the Scottish EDGE and Innovate UK, and was recently named Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Kerry Sharp, head of the Scottish Investment Bank, said: ‘This is an exciting new equity investment for Scottish Enterprise into a company that has utilised the circular economy to make an innovative and valuable product.

‘The funding round will also allow high value R&D employment opportunities to be created in rural Scotland with the roll out of the new pilot plant.’

Martin has been supported by LAUNCH.ed, the university’s service for student entrepreneurs, since January 2016 when he was studying for an MSc in Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology.

LAUNCH.ed has helped him to develop his business, apply and pitch for grants and competitions, and connect with mentors and investors.

Dr George Baxter, CEO of Edinburgh Innovations, the university’s industry engagement service, which manages LAUNCH.ed, said: ‘It’s wonderful to see investors show confidence in Douglas and MiAlgae. The innovation of his process and the way it will help the environment have great potential.’

Fraser Lusty of Equity Gap said: ‘Douglas is an exceptional talent and has made remarkable progress in a novel solution for sustainable food production.’

Martin will be looking to expand production capacity 30-fold and his team of two to five.

Scotland’s biggest barge for biggest farm New starter diet sprints ahead THE largest feed barge in Scotland has been delivered to Marine Harvest’s Carradale site, the company’s – and Scotland’s – biggest seawater farm.

The AKVA wavemaster AC 650 Panorama is fitted with many smart technology features, including the Akvaconnect 8-line feeding system.

The barge, which is 35m long and 12m wide and can hold 650 tonnes of feed, will replace the site’s current one, which has a capacity of 400 tonnes.

Named Eilean Grianaian after a small island near the Carradale site, the barge cost more than £2 million and has 12 feed silos and eight feed lines, with a capacity for 10.

Site manager Stuart Witts said: ‘The Carradale farm is the biggest in Scotland and has a limit of 5,000 tonnes of fish. The current feed barge became a limiting factor as it didn’t allow us to reach peak capacity.’

Duane Coetzer, area manager, and Warren Harvey, also a site manager, visited the new barge while it was being built in Tallinn, Estonia, before it was tugged 1,450 miles in 11 days by Danish based Hanstholm Towing Company, arriving in Campbeltown on May 29.

Harvey said: ‘It’s very exciting to be able to take the farm from strength to strength, the new barge will make a huge difference for feeding because we will be able to hold much more food.’

Above: Warren Harvey takes delivery of the new barge from Finn Busch Hansen of Hanstholm Towing Company (Picture: Hannah O’Hanlon)

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SKRETTING’S newest hatchery feed innovation is producing impressive results compared to previous diets, said Skretting’s hatchery technical sales advisor Jamie Johnston.

‘The early life stages of all animals are very important. It is therefore important that any animals, especially those being grown in intensive environments, are getting the correct nutrition.’

The physical quality of the pellets has a direct impact on both the water quality and also the fish’s ability to eat the feed at such a young age. With RAS systems becoming ever more popular, it was essential that both aspects were taken into consideration, to ensure the feed has a slow sinking speed and high attractability, while also giving fast foundation growth.

A recent trial compared Nutra Sprint to the previous diet, Nutra XP WS. ‘The trial was undertaken at a commercial RAS hatchery in Scotland, the two feeds were fed in triplicate with the same culture water and conditions,’ said Johnston. ‘The new

Nutra Sprint gave an increase in SGR (0.26), a decrease in FCR (0.04) and a higher mean weight (0.34g or 15 per cent higher) from first feed to 54 days post first feed up to 2.5g.

‘The results from the trial were impressive and demonstrate the commercial advantages available to our customers. Combining the unique blend of digestible raw materials, while using the latest in nutritional knowledge and processing capabilities, has really paid off in Nutra Sprint,’ said Johnston.

‘We are really encouraged with how Nutra Sprint has performed, both in R&D trials and for our commercial partners. The opportunity for faster growth, producing larger more robust smolts, will be passed on to the seawater phase, resulting in a shorter production cycle to harvest.’

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ARASITE outbreaks cause production inefficiencies and have negative consequences for wild populations when diseases spread. The curative approach based on the use of chemicals and drugs to combat parasites once the outbreak is detected is stressful for fish, incurs substantial costs, and is increasingly hampered by the development of resistance and the increasing regulatory restrictions. Functional nutrition through the inclusion of health promoting feed additives is nowadays a widespread strategy for preventing and minimising the impact of parasitic infestations.

Through continuous research and innovation, Nutriad has gained understanding of fish-parasite interactions and has developed unique and efficient functional feed additives to reduce dependence on medicated treatments and reinforce the disease prevention strategy. Its health promoting feed additives (Sanacore GM, Apex Branchia or Apex Aqua) are based on combinations of synergetic natural compounds, such as phytobiotics, immune-stimulants and organic acids, that can work through multiple mechanisms against a broad spectrum of parasites.

The synergistic combinations of phytobiotics and organic acids provide anti-parasitic action against intestinal, skin and gill parasites, whereas immune modulators reinforce animal immunity and induce alterations in the composition and thickness of the mucus that leads to a better protection against the parasite. Well documented results, including laboratory and farm trials, demonstrate high efficacy to lower the prevalence and severity of endo- and ecto-parasitic infections affecting cold- and warm-water species, as well as overall improvements in fish health and performance.

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Nuriad’s team of aqua experts works hand-in-hand with producers around the globe to identify and resolve bottlenecks in aquaculture productivity by the application of its innovative functional feed additives.

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03/07/2018 10:54:43

Water quality

Breathe easy Remote control capabilities for fish farm oxygenation in Chile

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LOBAL satellite communications provider Inmarsat and Chilean company Oxzo have teamed up to devise the latest in smart fish farming oxygenation technology.

Oxzo, part of the holding company Fiordo Austral SA, is a Chilean business which specialises in providing oxygen and ozone solutions to the salmon farming industry.

It has developed an innovative sea based oxygen generation system called Oxymar, which speeds up the cultivation of fish.

Oxzo currently has 21 Oxymar units and a total installed capacity of 180 tonnes of oxygen, making it the leading oxygen producer in the Chilean regions of Los Lagos and Aysén.

Salmon farmers are constantly looking for innovative ways to accelerate the growth of their stocks until they are ready for harvest, and a crucial means of doing so is ensuring that the sea pens have the optimal level of oxygen.

In order to provide oxygen to salmon producers’ fattening units, Oxzo developed specialist technology to monitor the level of oxygen in the water and distribute additional oxygen if required. However, as these platforms are often miles out at sea, it is critical that the oxygenation

The new name for sea lice skirts for the fish farming industry Working together with Scottish Sea Farms to produce the strongest and most effective sea lice skirts on the market today.

William Milne Tarpaulins Scotland Ltd Aberdeen Scotland AB12 3AX T: 01224 631 012 M: 07786 578 456 Email: mark@wm-milne.co.uk 56

Water - Inmarsat.indd 56

equipment can be operated and controlled remotely, making constant connectivity essential.

To address this connectivity challenge Oxzo equipped platforms with VSAT satellite technology. But the constant movement of the platforms due to swells in the ocean, which was ‘pitching’ the platforms, resulted in the VSAT antennas losing their connectivity, limiting Oxzo’s ability to control the levels of oxygen in the sea cages.

Each time this happened, Oxzo had to send technicians out to these platforms to realign the VSAT antennas – incurring significant costs in the process.

In response to this problem, Oxzo engaged Tesacom, a specialist in deploying integrated communication networks in remote and inhospitable environments, to develop a solution that used Inmarsat’s global satellite network to deliver constant connectivity and reliable transmission of data from the floating platforms to the company’s monitoring centre.

Viviana Fonseca, CEO at Tesacom, explained how the company worked in a consultative approach with Inmarsat to develop a satellite connectivity solution that could overcome Oxzo’s challenges.

‘We recognised that the communications issues caused by the remote and challenging location of offshore sea cages meant that satellite was the only viable connectivity option.

‘We needed a robust communications solution that could withstand the irregular movements of the sea and continue to transmit data to Oxzo’s control room. We opted to replace the existing VSAT technology with a Hughes 9502 machine-to-machine integrated antenna terminal using Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service.

‘We chose the BGAN solution because it is ideal for supervisory control and data acquisition solutions that require point-to-point connections. Working with Inmarsat’s L-band service, rather than the much narrower Kuband frequency of the VSAT solution, gave us much greater flexibility and ensured constant

needed a robust communications “Wesolution that could withstand the irregular movements of the sea ” www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

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Breathe easy

Top: An Oxzo floating platform in situ. Above: Chilean sea pens. Right: Local terminals connect to Inmarsat’s BGAN service.

connectivity to the platforms, regardless of where they are situated.’

The BGAN terminals are more than capable of operating in this environment, with an IP55 rating that protects the technology from dust and water. Using Inmarsat’s global satellite network, the terminals provide data connection speeds of 448 kbps upload and 464 kbps download and offer 99.9 per cent availability.

This ensures that Oxzo can operate the oxygen distribution system remotely, regardless of the conditions.

The BGAN M2M solution enables communication between Oxzo’s control room and the oxygen generation equipment, enabling it to entirely automate the delivery of oxygen at its floating platforms.

This ensures that the optimal level of oxygen is present in the cages at all times and speeds up the fish cultivation process. This has enabled Oxzo to significantly reduce its operational costs and become more productive, ensuring that it provides the very best service to its clients.

John Marcus, managing director of Oxzo, said: ‘We rely on being in constant communication with our Oxymar systems, which enables us to monitor and adjust oxygen levels in real time and control the systems remotely.

‘With our previous VSAT system we did not

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have that functionality, due to the constant losses of connectivity. We were also incurring significant costs by having to send a maintenance technician out to our sites to realign the communications infrastructure and restore connectivity manually.

‘However, with the new BGAN solution, that has all changed and we’ve been enjoying seamless connectivity.

‘The solution provided by Tesacom and Inmarsat has been hugely important in enabling us to deliver a better service to our clients, and we are rolling it out across all our Oxymar oxygenation platforms.’ FF

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03/07/2018 10:56:57

Water quality

BY DUNCAN OCKENDON

What goes around comes around Ultra violet as an alternative disinfection system for RAS

R

ECIRCULATING aquaculture systems (RAS) can consume as little as five per cent of the total tank water volume per day as makeup to replace losses from evaporation and cleaning.

This can be drawn from a borehole or even a municipal water supply, so the system can be located almost anywhere and does not need to be near the sea, a river or lake.

Recirculating aquaculture systems are typically complex, indoor constructions, so are more expensive than either pond or cage culture but, if the system is managed properly to produce fish on a year round basis, the economic returns can make it worth the increased investment.

They occupy a small footprint, producing an annual yield of around 150kg of fish per m3 of rearing volume and provide a high level of

environmental control.

Their lower water volumes mean that temperature and salinity control are simpler.

In addition, chemotherapeuticals dosing is significantly reduced and more efficient, and fish health significantly improved thanks to the high level of biosecurity and disinfection of all intake water.

This makes RAS a popular choice for hatcheries and for the production of salmon smolt. But such high intensity rearing has its drawbacks.

Opposite: The intake disinfection system for a 150m3/h smolt hatchery RAS in Osland.

Photo courtesy of Krüger Kaldnes.

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What goes around comes around

offers completely “It chemical free

biosecurity and sustainability resulting from low energy consumption

”

Perhaps the most important factor in successful RAS operation is control of water quality. Salinity is an obvious parameter, and that will depend on the species of fish being produced, as are dissolved oxygen and temperature.

High fish densities result in high loads of metabolic wastes – BOD and ammonia – which creates an environment capable of supporting a wide variety of microbial life. Some bacteria are desirable, helping to purify the circulating water, and they are encouraged to grow on the media in biotreatment filters in a variety of controlled environments.

In aerobic conditions, bacteria like Zooglea, Achromobacter, Pseudomonas and Flavobacterium oxidise carbonaceous BOD to carbon dioxide, while Nitrosomas and Nitrobacter convert ammonia into nitrate.

If nitrate accumulation becomes a problem, denitrifiers like Thiobacillus denitrificans can convert nitrate to nitrogen gas in anaerobic conditions. But excessive growth of these ‘friendly bacteria’ leads to them sloughing off from the filter media and into the circulating water.

However, the recirculating water can also harbour pathogens that cause fish disease and other bacteria like Actinomycetes and Cyanobacter which produce compounds that cause off-flavours like earthy tasting geosmin.

Both result in delayed harvesting and loss of sales. So it is essential to control the accumulation of these microorganisms in order to maintain good production.

The biological treatment plant and filtration will provide good control of microbiota by controlling the level of organic matter in the circulating water, and can remove some pathogens.

RAS provides a range of micro environments with different levels of dissolved oxygen favouring different bacterial species. Some of these, including Pseudomonas, excrete extracellular polysaccharides forming adherent biofilms on pipework and other surfaces.

These biofilms are another source of free bacteria which slough off the surface and maintain the population in the circulating water.

Traditional chemical disinfectants like sodium hypochlorite are toxic to fish so, clearly, cannot

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be used. The most widely used alternative chemical biocide is ozone.

This is a powerful oxidant which can destroy the bacterial cell wall, and has the advantage that it rapidly decomposes to oxygen, Although this kills the bacterium, it allows the cell contents, including endotoxins, to be dissipated into the circulating water.

Further, in brackish or sea waters, and to a lesser extent in fresh waters, ozone oxidises bromide and chloride to bromate and chlorate, both of which are potential carcinogens.

There is an alternative. UV radiation is a proven disinfection process that is chemical free and leaves no toxic residuals or by-products.

It can easily achieve a 4 or 5-log reduction in bacteria count and is completely safe.

The Lancashire based company atg UV Technology has extensive experience in the aquaculture sector and has supplied a number of UV disinfection systems for onshore and well boat applications.

Among these installations are intake disinfection systems for a 150m3/h smolt hatchery RAS in Osland and a 360m3/h smolt hatchery RAS in Helgeland.

Disinfection by UV is gaining rapid acceptance in recirculating aquaculture systems because it satisfies a number of criteria of importance. These include highly effective biocidal action, completely chemical free biosecurity and sustainability resulting from low energy consumption.

Duncan Ockendon is international sales manager of atg UV Technology. FF

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03/07/2018 10:58:11

From the archive – July/August 1992

Shetland evaluates rearing methods BOB BIERLEY discovers high interest in flatfish – even lemon and Dover sole are still being considered – where intensive and low-cost systems for halibut are being compared

L

ast year, the Shetland Isles Council, a founder member of the British Halibut Association, acquired 35 of the halibut broodstock from the fisheries research centre at Ardtoe.

They were brought up on the well-boat ‘Solea’ and are now in the care of the Shetland Salmon Company in an adapted salmon cage at a site in West Burrafirth on the west mainland.

Small tubular frames were manufactured by Malakoff and Moore for stretching the base of the net enclosures in a cage of internal dimension 10.8 metres square. The net is a modified 20mm square mesh salmon grower net, antifouled, with dimensions of 10 metres square and 2m deep.

A 9 metre square sheet of tarpaulin is stitched into the bottom of the net and stretched taut with ropes attached to four 10m long ½in. steel tubes running along each side of the net. Ropes run from each corner of the frame and halfway along the sides of the handrails of the cage.

These are tensioned to take the weight of the tarpaulin, as opposed to that of the actual net itself. The halibut is a deep water fish and to prevent it being harmed by the bright summer sun, the cage is covered with Tilldenet shading material.

According to Paul Featherstone, who manages the halibut for the Shetland Salmon Company, the fish have been through the winter without

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Below: Untying the Tildenet. Opposite (top): Paul Featherstone.

(Below): Charley Simpson of Shetland Isles Council.

any problems. ‘The Shetland area is ideal for the halibut,’ he said. ‘There is a narrower temperature range which is more suitable for the halibut.

They also seem to prefer the higher salinity which is found in the area.’

Mr Featherstone said that the ultimate aim was to strip the broodstock, probably next February, and begin the process of rearing halibut in Shetland from egg to commercially viable size.

‘We should be able to grow a fish weighing just over five kilos in a fouryear cycle,’ he said.

‘The early stage is the most difficult. There are two ways of feeding the young halibut once they have used up their egg sacks; the first is the intensive method, which is used at Ardtoe. This involves growing algae which are fed to rotifers – a form of zooplankton – which are in turn fed to the young halibut. The young halibut then progress to the brine shrimp, artemia.

‘The second method is the one used mainly by the Norwegians and involves pumping water through a filter to collect the zooplankton. The first method allows greater control, but the second is a much lower cost option. Both methods will be tried and evaluated in Shetland.’

Six males and six females have been selected for breeding in 1993, and have been tagged with green and orange markers, he said.

At present, the feed for the broodstock consists of fresh whiting and

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From the archive – July/August 1992 frozen herring thawed the previous day. The fish readily take both these feeds but seem to prefer the herring. Mackerel were also tried but a limited response meant it was abandoned, as a small quantity was always left uneaten. Mr Featherstone said that, though these feeds worked well, it was possible that prepared moist feeds could be used for commercial growth.

At present, the halibut are fed twice a week, the broodstock taking about 7 to 9k g of herring and 6 to 7kg of whiting on alternate feeds.

‘Generally, the fish seem to be very healthy, have a bright, clean appearance and are always interested in food,’ said Mr Featherstone.

‘None of the fish shows any sign of fin rot or indeed any lesions on the body surface. We have also had no evidence of sea lice.’

The halibut share their cage with 20 broodstock turbot, also from Ardtoe. The two species seem to cohabit well, with the turbot spending most of their time on the bottom, in sand specifically placed there for them.

The divers, who check the cage once a week, have reported that the halibut shuffle into the sand alongside the turbot and rest there, even though halibut do not necessarily require sand.

Locally caught flatfish are also grown on in another cage at the West Burrafirth site. The Shetland Salmon Farmers Association commissioned local fisherman, Gordon Smith, to collect wild lemon and Dover sole this last spring.

Mr Smith has been out four or five times to St Magnus Bay, with the result that the cage, next to the halibut cage, now contains a number of flatfish of between four and 12 inches in length.

But this project is still at a very early experimental stage and Shetland Salmon Company’s main interest is in the halibut. Paul Featherstone said: ‘From my own experience of halibut in cages thus far, I cannot envisage any major reason why halibut cannot be grown on successfully in the cage environment. However, it is early days yet.’

Another Shetland Salmon company currently experimenting with flatfish is Vaila Sound Salmon Ltd, partly owned and managed by Chris Young, the chairman of Shetland Salmon Farmers Association. At present, they are raising juvenile turbot, as well as locally caught flatfish. Vaila Sound Salmon are using a 40m circumference polar circle cage with the tarpaulin at the bottom stretched within an octagonal steel frame.

Turbot breeding was developed in Scotland, from where most of the juveniles are shipped out to be outgrown in the Mediterranean. But, according to Chris Young, growth rates in cooler waters are acceptable, though the growth period is admittedly long.

So far, the turbot at Vaila Sound are doing well, Mr Young said, ‘When we got them last August, they weighed 100-300g. At the last measurement in March this year they were between 600-1,200g. We’re aiming for 1.5 kilo and I think they ought to be this size by the end of the summer.’

Mr Young said that though the growth rate slowed when the temperature dropped below 8°C, the turbot did actually continue feeding right through the winter. He added that Shetland was suitable for egg to juvenile production during the summer months.

But, though turbot are a commercial possibility, Chris Young believes halibut are a much better prospect. They are a cold water fish, ideal for Shetland waters, and they are happy to be kept in fairly dense populations. In addition, fed wet fish, they have a good weight gain – around 2.5 to 1 or 3 to 1.

‘They are efficient and cost effective to raise. The only problems are in bringing them up to the ongrowing stage, but these problems are being resolved one by one,’ said Mr Young.

‘The price of halibut is now around £9.00/kilo, although we are aware that if there is an enormous production of halibut in ten years’ time, then the prices will fall. But even if the relative price is lower than at present, I still feel halibut will be commercially viable.’

Mr Young explained that both the Shetland Salmon Farmers Association and the Shetland Isles Council were interested in diversifying the Isles’ fish farming industry, which was why they had funded the research into flatfish. He pointed out that a lot of small flatfish were caught by trawlers and ended up being thrown back in the sea dead. If these fish could be kept alive on board ship, then grown on, it would reduce waste and provide an industry for both fish farmers and fishermen. He pointed out

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that cod juveniles are caught from the wild in Norway, grown in cages and sold when the wild stock are unavailable and prices are higher. This also happens in Newfoundland. Chris Young looked forward to the day when there would be a steady supply of halibut for ongrowing in cages.

Charley Simpson, fisheries research and development officer for the Shetland Isles Council, said that development of flatfish production in Shetland went hand in hand with the work at Ardtoe. He stressed the difficulties of getting halibut from egg to first feeding stage but thought the problem might have been resolved in a year or two. He added that research in Norway indicated that turbot could be a commercial viability.

He was particularly interested in the prospect of growing-on locally caught flatfish.

‘In Shetland, fish farmers and fishermen have a fairly good relationship, and there is a degree of optimism that this project will work to the benefit of both industries. For instance, lemon sole could be caught in summer, and grown on then sold in winter when it is most valuable. It just isn’t viable to grow certain species of eggs.

‘Lobsters are at present caught in summer and kept on till winter. There’s no reason why this shouldn’t be extended to flatfish. Fish stocks in the sea are under increasing pressure and this method would reduce waste.

‘There’s nothing new in this of course. It’s been done in Norway for a long time now with cod. In Shetland we are going to begin a cod catching and raising trial as soon as a new, specially built tank is ready. There is no reason why cod, lemon sole, monkfish and other fish could not be caught and kept on till the prices are more conducive to selling.

‘But at the moment,’ said Charley Simpson, ‘we’re taking it cannily, as we say in Shetland.’ FF

area is ideal “The forShetland the halibut ”

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03/07/2018 11:02:41

Book review

Iron men in wooden boats History of Shetland’s cod hunters vividly recounted Review by Jenny Hjul

A

NY history of the fishing industry in Shetland is also certain to offer insights into its wider cultural and social life, given how central fisheries have been to the islands over the years.

And so John Goodlad’s account of his homeland’s nineteenth century cod fishery is much more than a tale of record catches and ship dimensions, market prices and weather incidents, although these all figure in vivid detail.

The Cod Hunters represents a profile of ordinary people doing extraordinary things as they chased cod shoals from Rockall to Faroe, from Iceland to Greenland.

With an illustrious career in the industry, starting in his twenties when he chaired the Shetland Fishermen’s Association, Goodlad moves easily among his subjects, the long gone men who set sail in often perilous conditions to harvest the seas for cod.

For the best part of a century cod was the mainstay of the Shetland fishing industry, and intrepid skippers criss-crossed the north Atlantic in search of the richest grounds. For a spell, these were the Greenland cod banks; trips of more than three months’ duration were not

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uncommon, and the life of fishermen, many as young as 14, was fraught with incredible danger and discomfort.

Goodlad records these voyages in depth, including the sizes of the catches, the length of time at sea and the numbers of crew, thanks to sources such as the Lerwick Fishery Office. But he gives the statistics a personal dimension by following the fortunes of individual players, whether cod smacks or cod fishermen – or even legendary cod grounds.

One of these, Heglie’s Bank off Iceland, was the stuff of Shetland folklore, and Goodlad had first heard mention of it as a boy. He turns detective to try to locate the ground that had never appeared on a fishing chart, and in the process discovers one of many links between the Shetland cod hunters and their Faroese successors.

In fact, the Faroes are rarely out of the picture. Goodlad recalls how his grandmother joked that you were not allowed in the best room in the house until you had fished at Faroe.

‘It registered with me from a very early age that the men who crewed the Faroe smacks must have had something of an enhanced social status in nineteenth century Shetland.’

Faroe provided relatively accessible fishing, shelter when necessary and, for many years, contraband- mostly brandy, with which the Shetland cod hunters were able to subsidise their modest incomes.

Smuggling became a crucial part of the ‘catch’ from the Faroes, where there was no excise duty, and even a Goodlad ancestor was caught redhanded by the author, with brandy and three woollen jumpers.

The discovery of a Faroese merchant’s company ledgers in a bar in Tvoroyri revealed that many Shetland cod fishermen would spend a year’s wages on illicit goods, which they would then land at night at some secluded bay in Shetland, out of the reaches of the Coastguard Service.

More innocent images colour this engaging book, of the ‘beach boys’, for example, who laid out the bulk of the cod catch, processed in salt on board the smacks and then left to dry, ‘glistening white’, on pristine pebble beaches.

And the method of fishing itself, primitive but effective, with each fisherman casting his own baited hand line, reflects the simplicity of the times.

Goodlad is surprised to learn that there was an enormous difference in catch rates among fishermen deploying exactly the same lines.

He also unearths the first wellboats which, to a former salmon farmer like himself, might seem basic. But they were nevertheless efficient in keeping a proportion of the catch alive to supply the increasingly affluent middle classes in London who ‘wanted fresh cod to adorn their dining tables’ and were prepared to pay a premium for it.

The cod fishery was eventually replaced by the herring, but the cod hunters, and the merchants who took almost as many risks, left behind a legacy of seamanship and innovation, not just in Shetland but in the Faroes too.

Goodlad ensures that these remarkable ‘iron men in wooden boats’ will not be forgotten, in a thorough history that is both faithfully and lovingly told. FF

men “whoThecrewed

the Faroe smacks must have had something of an enhanced social status

”

Above: The Cod Hunters - Shetland’s fishing history brought to life.

The Cod Hunters, by John Goodlad, published by Shetland Heritage Publications, 183 pages.

Hardcover from £25, paperback from £15 (info@shetlandamenity.org). www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

03/07/2018 11:03:42

Processing and Retail News

Masters of their craft Excellence among fishmongers was recognised last month with the inaugural awards ceremony for the coveted accolade of Master Fishmonger.

TEN fishmongers received their certificates of achievement from Princess Anne, in her capacity as Prime Warden of the Fishmongers’ Company.

At the ceremony, in Fish Hall near old Billingsgate Market in Above: Fisheries consultant Hal Dawson being London, the historic awarded his accolade by Princess Anne centre for standards of healthy eating. fishmongering since a lifetime of contriThe award scheme 1272, Princess Anne enbution to the art of recognises achievement fishmongering may be couraged all fishmongers to be the guardians for fishmongers at three bestowed as Companion levels of progression – of excellence, not just Fishmongers.

Recognised, Advanced with the preparation One recipient was and Master. In addition, Master Fishmonger Hal and selling of fish, but those who have given also as champions for Dawson, who opened

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

Processing News.indd 63

Setting a standard

“

This is the most exciting thing to have happened to the retail food sector in a long time

”

Standard is the most exciting thing to have happened to the retail seafood sector in a long time, promoting higher levels of knowledge, craft skills and setting a standard to be aspired too.’

Above: Sagar Massey, judge Galton Blackiston, and Jamie Cracknell

A SCOTTISH team has won the UK Young Seafood Chef of the Year competition for the first time, seeing off tough contenders from across the country.

Jamie Cracknell, 21, a key pillar of our strategic growth and Sagar Massey, 19, plan and the continued success who are both studying in the US market demonstrates for an HNC in profesthe strength and popularity of our sional cookery at West brand.

College Scotland, were ‘The expansion in North America crowned champions highlights the significant scope at the final, held at the we have to grow sales outside of Grimsby Institute on the UK, where Young’s Seafood is June 15. the number one fish and seafood They battled it out Above: The Master Fishmongers and Companion brand. against eight other Fishmonger at Fish Hall ‘Our consumer research highteams to produce a lights that British provenance is a three-course menu key selling point in the US, where using only sustainably we are now one of the fastest sourced seafood. growing brands, and we believe Their menu of pickled Seafood Inter- herring with parsnip YOUNG’S there is scope to replicate this national. success in Europe, China and many Seafood is cream, radish and apple Young’s poised to other export markets.’ dashi; a new invention said it Ryan Grace, president of the Fish- lose a £30 test dish using tiger was dismillion in’ Company, said the expansion prawns; and poached appointcontract will more than double the items monkfish tail in an olive ed but with sold in the US market. crumb with monkfish stressed ‘This will launch in the fall and we ASDA. The scampi impressed the that Asda reimpact on jobs are looking forward to supportjudges. mained an important is still to be assessed. ing this additional The champions will customer – presumably have their winning The contract is in business and partthrough it sale of its two parts – a shrimp nering with Young’s recipes featured on the Gastro Range and oth- website of competition or prawn processing to increase seafood er branded products. arrangement which consumption.’ sponsor Seafish’s NaYoung’s is currently has gone to Labeyrie The US packaging tional Seafood Week, up for sale, with a deal to take place from highlights that Young’s Fine Foods of France expected by the end of October 5-12.. is ‘Made in Britain’ and and the supply of the year. white fish (mainly cod features Young’s BritThe UK Young The seafood proand haddock) which ish heritage. Young’s Seafood Chef of the cessing industry is in a looks like being taken executives are curYear competition was state of turmoil, with rently visiting retailers up by Albert Darnell founded in 1996 by contracts being won of Grimsby, now part in China to build the tutors and industry of Chessington, Surrey, and lost on a regular brand in this market specialists. basis. based New England during 2018/19.

US market targeted for expansion SIX months after Young’s Seafood launched its brand in the US it has announced further growth, with increased distribution, new products and extensions to the existing lines.

In January 2018, Young’s entered the US market in partnership with the Fishin’ Company by securing national distribution at Walmart, Sam’s Club, and several grocery chains operated by Ahold Delhaize.

Seven of Young’s products were featured in more than 13,000 distribution points. The success of this move will be expanded by increasing US distribution through partnership with the Albertsons Safeway group into Safeway Northern California and Jewel-Osco.

This will add an additional 1,300 points of distribution for Young’s fish dishes in some of the premier food markets in the US. Bill Showalter, CEO of Young’s Seafood, said: ‘Driving exports is

his first fishmonger shop in the 1970s armed with just a pair of kitchen scissors and a set of his mother’s plastic weighing scales.

He declared this moment as the ‘biggest accolade of his seafood career’. Having sold his fishmonger business and smokehouse in 2000, he has since trained hundreds of fishmongers across Europe.

Andrew Kenny, president of the National Federation of Fishmongers, said: ‘I believe the Master Fishmonger

Scots pair crowned top seafood chefs

Young’s set to lose £30m Asda contract

63

03/07/2018 11:04:33

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Opinion – Inside track

Two faces of wild fish

BY NICK JOY

I

WAS going through some files last week and came across a clipping entitled ‘Fish farmers aim to end war with anglers’.

It was about the setting up of Loch Duart’s Area Management Agreement in Laxford in 2000. Andrew Wallace and the Association of District Fisheries Board were quoted as saying this was a significant step towards the reconciliation between the wild and farmed fish interests. Oh, how naïve this all sounds now.

The idea was that we set up groups at a local level and deal with the local rivers and river owners to minimise any possible interactions - in other words, balance the needs of the two industries and try to work for the best of both.

What was unique about this moment in the media, certainly in my career, was that the ADFB, the farmed and wild sectors were all being positive about the move.

The article quoted the estate manager for the Westminster estates and he was positive too. The only negative tone came from Friends of the Earth and what else would you expect?

Where did all that positivity go and how did we get back to the current state of bad relations?

The answer lies with both industries to some degree. In those days, salmon farming was growing fast and beset by challenges on all sides, low prices and ISA. Relations with the wild fish angling industry seemed to be a lesser problem.

When we met to discuss issues, Area Management Agreements and the like were very much the last item on the agenda.

Both industry relations and public relations were certainly not subjects we focused on.

Meanwhile, the wild angling sector continued to lobby government and any bodies which it could influence.

It seems to me now that they had an overt strategy, to appear to work with the industry, while fomenting discord in any way they could.

But the split between the reasonable people and their attack dogs was evident only when you read the papers. When you met the protagonists face to face they always said very similar things.

Not only that, but there were very strong rumours of strategy meetings between the different angling factions. Certainly, when you look at the current behaviour, this would still appear to be the case.

Speaking to Andrew Wallace a long time ago, and as a joke, I said you will want to control us even if we grow species completely unrelated to salmon. He replied that they would because they would not know the relationship between those species and salmon.

In other words, there is no satisfactory outcome to satisfying the wild side unless our industry is dismantled.

For quite some time, I worried that government might unintentionally destroy our industry while trying to placate the wild salmonid lobby.

But despite the endless media campaigns by the wild lobby, there is little doubt that their traction with government is waning.

There will be more overweening regulation for aquaculture, but this is happening to all industries. There will be more and more radical attempts by the angling lobby to influence, but in the end they will fail. Our industry is here to stay.

The danger of representing yourself with two faces, reasoned and rabid, while cloaked in green colours, will even-

66

Nick Joy.indd 66

There were “very strong rumours of strategy meetings between the different angling factions

”

tually be exposed. It is just a matter of time.

Angling is the province of the older generation. That generation lives with the catches of the late 60s in their heads. This nostalgia blinds them to the realities before that, and their determination to blame anyone and anything for what has occurred also drives away the young and the angling tourists, and alienates them from the public.

What we in the salmon farming industry should do is keep in mind who our audience is.

The public consume what we do and appreciate it. It is true that a lot are aware of the criticisms of us but, as a food lover, let me tell you we are not alone.

Beef farmers and methane, arable farmers and biodiversity, or chicken/pig farmers and welfare, the food industry’s critics are legion. The world is full of people who know what everybody else should do while utterly ignoring their own advice. FF

www.fishfarmer-magazine.com

03/07/2018 11:05:27

Ace Aquatec.indd 67

03/07/2018 08:47:47

The joined meeting of the European Aquaculture Society and World Aquaculture Society

For more info on the TRADESHOW : mario@marevent.com For more info on the CONFERENCE : www.was.org and www.aquaeas.eu.

WAS - Maevent.indd 68

02/07/2018 12:22:53