Welcome to Loch Etive!

Join James Sibley as he witnesses the transfer of salmon post smolts to the Isle of Muck as part of Mowi Scotland’s latest innovative trial.

Salmon are raised from eggs to juvenile smolts in land-based hatcheries, after which they are traditionally transferred to sea pens. One of the challenges with this process is that the fish need to grow at sea for over a year, which exposes them to the summer’s most challenging biological issues. What these farmers are trialling is an intermediate period in the brackish waters of Loch Etive.

By rearing post-smolts for half a year away from the worst conditions the summer oceans can bring, they hope to reduce their salmon’s time at sea and improve the overall farming operation.

James Sibley is an aquaculture content creator, working with Mowi to learn about and give an insight into our farms. James also regularly visits other operations to get a better grasp of the industry as a whole.

You can follow James and see his updates from the farms on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.

Check out the video below.