COMMUNITY
MULL SALMON FARM TO TRIAL SYSTEM Scottish Sea Farms is to trial a new system to protect salmon from plankton in what is being hailed as a first for the sector in Scotland. It involves six pens at its Loch Spelve farm on Mull being connected to a new Canadian-built ‘Flowpressor’ system, with the other six served by a standard compressor. Plankton can cause damage to the gills and deprive fish of oxygen so aeration of the water is one of several protective measures salmon farms take when rising plankton levels are detected. Currently, salmon farmers use generic aeration compressors to aerate the water by pumping air into pens to boost water movement and water quality, but the current system can have mixed results. If air flows are not evenly
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distributed, the pens closest to the compressor tend to receive the biggest boost of air. The trial will seek to demonstrate the difference between the Flowpressor and traditional kit. It has also improved fish The Flowpressor system survival and improved has been custom-designed growth due to fewer lost for the aquaculture sector feeding days, by Canadianthe company based Poseidon We will be said. Ocean Innes Weir, looking to see Systems. Gill health what day-to-day regional production is more of a difference the manager at challenge in system makes Scottish Sea Canada than to the feed rate, Farms, said: in Scottish ‘Flowpressor growth and waters and the effectively Flowpressor survival of our draws ‘clean’ system is salmon overall. water from already in the depth of operation along the pen – in Canada’s west coast where other words, well away the farmers have reported a 50 planktonic surface layers – to 60 per cent reduction in and distributes it upwards, algae inside pens.
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| SUMMER 2021
Mull & Iona Life issue 42.indd 12
23/07/2021 11:11:23
