Schools join forces for award
EASDALE and Luing Primary Schools have together netted the first prize in a film competition with their short feature about the life cycle of a farmed Atlantic salmon.
The competition was organised by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), based at Dunstaffnage, as part for the EU Horizon 2020 Aquaspace project.
The three-year Europe-wide project aims to find space for aquaculture industries to grow in a sustainable way.
The film competition was open to local primary schools in the Oban and Lorn area, with a brief to make short films about where the fish on their dinner plate actually comes from.
SAMS scientist Dr Suzi Billing and SAMS resident film-maker Andy Crabb, who has previously travelled to local schools to run workshops on fish-farming as well as film-making, visited Easdale school to congratulate the teachers and the pupils of both schools, and to present the prize of £200 in Amazon vouchers and give them a ‘big’ certificate.
Dr Billing said: ‘I really enjoyed talking with the students about the fish and shellfish which are farmed right on our doorstep here in Argyll.
‘They had some great questions and were very keen to learn. It was so nice to see a good number of submissions, even though we set a pretty tight deadline.
‘A huge thank you to all of the schools that participated.’
Andy said: ‘We had some excellent entries from all the schools who took part, full of imagination invention and humour.
‘Lochnell and Taynuilt schools also picked up prizes, but after some considerations the judges chose Easdale and Luing’s joint entry as the best overall. It combined a lot of creative elements, some great art work and was cleverly put together.
‘Congratulations to all.’