Chemical disaster pollutes onshore fish farm at MACC
ABOUT 26,000 salmon in an onshore tank at Machrihanish have reportedly perished due to chemical contamination.
The Courier understands chemicals got into the water supply of the recirculation system during the repair of the main water inlet, which had broken.
In August 2016 Norwegian firm Niri AS’s giant tank in the Machrihanish Airbase Community Company’s (MACC) Gaydon hanger was hailed as a ‘giant leap forward for salmon farming’, and in May this year, at an Ugadale dinner organised by MACC, Niri director Arve Gravdal’s unique recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) was reported as a Scottish success story.
On Wednesday when the Courier phoned Mr Gravdal in Norway and he confirmed the fish had died. Asked if the tank would be restocked he said he would need to take advice and call back. However, speaking to
Fish Farmer magazine last week, Mr Gravdal was more upbeat and said that Niri had ‘met the milestones technology-wise’ in Scotland but a problem with water contamination had recently forced them to close down the farm.
He added: ‘We took out the fish a couple of months ago. The fish were market size and we froze down the lot but we stopped the project there.’
The removed fish were never sent to market.
A Radio 4 programme, broadcast on October 24 but recorded earlier, said that the aim was to produce 40,000 tonnes ‘when the technology kicks in’. Apparently, Tom Heap, who
presented the BBC programme – Fish Farms of the Future – visited Machrihanish and looked into the tank just before the whole project came to an end. He made no mention of any
problems with the fish during his broadcast.
Mr Gravdal takes heart from the fact that new Norwegian backers – believed to be Andenes – saw the ‘very nice’ Niri fish and have
decided to invest regardless of the outcome of the Scottish pilot.
‘Despite what happened, they are investing significantly in Norway now with the same technology.’
Mr Gravdal, now based in Maloy, north of Bergen, told Fish Farmer a new template with improved hydraulics could be brought back to Scotland as early as next year.