Scotland’s first sales of halibut

HALF a tonne of farmed halibut was sold by Marine Harvest McConnell to specially chosen retail outlets and restaurants in October. This was due to be followed by further harvesting by Otter Ferry Salmon in Argyll towards the end of the year.

David Windmill, managing director of Marine Harvest McConnell, sees salmon farmers as ideally placed to rear halibut. ‘They have the expertise, and with a little adjustment of existing equipment and sites, they can farm halibut and broaden Scotland’s aquacultural base’, he said.

This crowns the efforts of the British Halibut Association (BHA), formed in 1987, which now has four commercial hatcheries and the Seafish facility at Ardtoe in Argyll, producing halibut fry for ongrowing.

The broodstock halibut were caught in the wild. In the case of MHM the young halibut were spawned in Mannin Seafarms’ hatchery on the Isle of Man.