Otter Ferry’s latest chapter
The expertise at a long-established fish farm is now being put to use in a collaboration aimed at benefiting the whole industry.
Otter Ferry Seafish, based on the shores of Loch Fyne on Scotland’s west coast, has a history of succeeding through a process of reinvention.
Starting as a trout farm in the 1960s, Otter Ferry moved on to salmon in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming focused on broodstock and ova production rather than grow-out. In the 1990s Otter Ferry added halibut to its repertoire, and still functions as a halibut hatchery, although its dedicated farm, Gigha Halibut, has now closed.
Otter Ferry now grows halibut juveniles for a farmer based in Norway, but in principle there is still an interest in halibut farming in Scotland – if the right site can be found, says Managing Director Alastair Barge.
Over the past decade or so, Otter Ferry has also become a specialist in cleaner fish breeding, and still produces wrasse to help the salmon industry control sea lice numbers.
The latest chapter in Otter Ferry’s story, however, involves a collaboration with the UK Agri-Tech Centre, an innovation body supported by the UK Government which was created through the merger of several related organisations, the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL), Crop Health & Protection (CHAP) and the Agri-EPI Centre, in April this year.
The deal makes use of Otter Ferry’s undoubted expertise in the marine sector to create the Marine Aquaculture Innovation Centre (MAIC), a facility dedicated to research and development in the aquaculture industry.
The UK Agri-Tech Centre’s role is to provide expertise, advice and specialised assets and facilities for the UK’s agricultural sector – including aquaculture.
In terms of aquaculture, key areas of interest for the UK Agri-Tech Centre are:
• Resilient production systems for a changing environment;
• Technologies to reduce and mitigate carbon/GHG emissions;
• Innovations enabling enhanced control of pathogens and parasites;
• Production methods that improve aquatic biodiversity;
• Effective adoption of advanced genetic improvement techniques; and
• Implementation of measures to improve the welfare of farmed aquatic animals.
Collaborative projects currently underway include “InSuRAFeed”, with Pontus Group, which is aimed at developing viable feed ingredients sourced from the UK and with a lower carbon footprint than conventional animal and aquafeed, and a plan to develop an alternative protein source for poultry feed based on cultivated macroalgae from Seaweed Generation.
The collaboration with Otter Ferry began with the establishment of a trials facility at Otter Ferry in 2021, supported by the former Agri-EPI Centre. The centre’s Aquaculture Adviser Robin Shields worked with the Otter Ferry team to develop the site’s existing capabilities.
The venture, co-funded by Innovate UK, provides much-needed capacity for developing innovative production technologies for diverse marine aquaculture species, including salmon to near market size. The facility is configured to undertake a wide range of studies, such as evaluating feeds and pharmaceuticals, instrumentation testing and validation of operational welfare indicators.
The MAIC trials facility comprises six 20m3 and 12 2m3 aquaculture rearing tanks, equipped with programmable lighting, automatic feeding, and oxygen and pH monitoring systems. All tanks are supplied with filtered, UV-disinfected seawater, with waste feed collectors fitted to the outflows. The facility is suitable for rearing diverse species including fin fish, shellfish and seaweed.
To date, combined set-up and funding costs have totalled around £500,000.
Otter Ferry Managing Director Alastair Barge explains: “We have always been doing R&D as part of our commercial development. Every species [that we have worked with] has involved commercial trials, and we have also done some external research.”
He met with representatives of the former Agri-EPI Centre, who were looking to encourage more research in aquaculture.
Barge says: “For a relatively small investment, we managed to put in place a unit which can take fish from any size up to market size, in a controlled trial situation.”
By the end of 2021 the new unit was installed. The first trial involved wrasse, but the facility soon moved into salmon. It is also capable of handling other species, including shellfish and seaweed.
The set-up is ideal for the evaluation of diets and nutritional trials. It has also run trials on vaccination response, health diagnostics and imaging technology.
One thing that the unit will not undertake, however, is disease challenge trials – even with high levels of biosecurity, the facility is not configured to deliberately introduce dangerous pathogens into any part of the system.
The UK Agri-Tech Centre, as successor to Agri-EPI Centre, has invested in more equipment including advanced monitoring systems, waste collection and treatment and temperature control.
The facility now deploys: programmable LED lighting to all tanks; individual, programmable auto-feeders; alarmed oxygen delivery to all tanks; CCTV monitoring of individual tanks; and waste feed collectors for all tanks (outflow).
Barge says: “It’s been a great marriage. UK Agri-Tech Centre’s professionalism has married with our practical nature.”
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