Knowledge Sharing with Mowi Scotland
Last month Andy Haslam and I travelled to Scotland to learn from our colleagues there how they are using enviro-nets to prevent gill damage and improve survival. It was a short and extremely valuable trip. Sean Anderson, Allan Murdoch, and David Macgillivray were kind enough to take us to all the sites which was much appreciated.
Enviro-nets are simply two nets sewn together that are installed in such a way that one is always fleeted up out of the water drying in the air while the one is installed in the cage with salmon in it. Every two weeks the nets are pulled so they switch positions and nothing ever gets a chance to grow on them.
Mowi Scotland have been successful using enviro-nets on their lower energy sites and have even installed them on circle sites. This strategy coupled with using RONCs to clean “clean” nets has resulted in improved survival. Not to mention two of these sites have achieved eFCRs of 1.04!
A highlight of our trip was Ian and Lori (and Rowyn) hosting us for dinner. It was great to catch up with both of them and I discovered that Ian and I share the same clan heritage, although neither of us can say what clan that is because it is apparently the most hated clan in Scotland.
In addition to the enviro-nets we saw:
- How large wellboats are docked on steel sites without removing anchors
- Thermo-licer and freshwater treatments
- Water-borne feeding
- Sea lice sampling
- Cleaner fish
- Mort incineration and ensilage
Another exciting part of our trip was learning to drive manual transmission on the left side of the road. I’ll admit Andy was more adept than I was but I left my mark on at least two curbs over there. Suffice to say I’m happy to get back here where we drive on the right side of the road
…saying nothing about how narrow the roads are over there!
By James Rogers