Diving In

Ross-shire Diving Services land major Mowi contract

When Brian Watson and Fiona Cameron made the decision to leave successful careers in New Zealand to return to Scotland, it was with the vision of setting up a new life with their young family and return to the area where they grew up.

Watson began his diving career on returning to Scotland, diving for Wester Ross Diving Services and Cameron continued her career in environmental science, joining the environment team at The Scottish Salmon company.

After a successful four years diving and supervising, the future looked uncertain for Watson when the company he worked for made the decision to cease trading in 2017. It looked as though the fifteen year provision of diving services for the aquaculture industry in the North-West area of Scotland might be coming to an end.

However, Watson, Cameron and the team at Ross-shire Diving Services had other ideas. They were determined to keep the service going and for it to be continued by a local company. Watson and Cameron invested all their savings to buy equipment and start their own company and by combining their skills established Ross-shire Diving services Ltd.

Fast forward three years and now Ross-shire Diving Services have just beaten off the competition to win the tender process securing the contract for diving services for Mowi Scotland in the North region. This is in addition to providing the services to their other clients in the sector such as Loch Duart, Scottish Salmon Company, Cooke Aquaculture and Organic Sea Harvest.

They are in no doubt about the importance of aquaculture to the local area and why it was important for Ross-shire diving to take up the reins:
‘This importance has been highlighted this year when if anything we have been even more busy than usual during the covid crisis and have kept our operations going throughout these challenging times to provide the essential services that the industry needs’.

The company’s base in Kishorn in Wester Ross, makes them ideally located to quickly provide the range of services that the industry needs.

Watson and Cameron are very proud of what they have achieved over their 3 years and are continually looking forward ensuring they are providing the best service possible. They have made a commitment to excellence and have signed up to complete ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001 accreditations.

Looking forwards Watson and Cameron are confident in the future and hope to invest in a new workboat and dedicated diving vessel which will future proof the business and expand on the range of services that the company delivers. A full range of the services provided can be found at https://rsdiving.com

Captions:
Featured: Diver John Strang exiting water after completing net inspections at Mowi’s Loch Alsh farm
1: Brian Watson and Fiona Cameron
2: The team diving with surface supply at Loch Duart