Tasmanian expertise boosts mussel project
A PROJECT to get Scottish mussels to spawn in a hatchery environment has received an international boost with a visit from Tasmanian partners Spring Bay Seafoods – operators of one of the world’s few commercial scale mussel hatcheries.
met during a four-day to Spring Bay Seafoods in 2015.
Insights from this trip helped inform the £1.7 million 30-month project by Marketing Group (SSMG) and University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), with co-funding from the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC), Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.
Currently, Scotland produces more than 7,700 tonnes of farmed mussels – 74 per cent of which are produced in Shetland – generating an estimated £11.7 million for the economy.
If successful, the pilot hatchery project will lead to a commercial scale hatchery, resulting in higher and more reliable yields of spat, additional jobs and wider distribution of sites – all of which combined will help towards the Scottish growth ambitions of 21,000 tonnes annually by 2030.
The project team, of operations well underway, hosted Spring Bay Seafoods’ hatchery manager Bryce Daly for a three-week visit to the NAFC Marine Centre UHI in Scalloway, Shetland.