Costly escape at high energy site

ONE of Mowi Scotland’s high energy sites reported a mass escape before Christmas, the second such incident at the site at Hellisay in the Outer Hebrides.

According to Marine Scotland, which collects details of all escapes from Scottish fish farms, 23,970 fish weighing an average 4.5kg escaped in October. The reason given was net failure (not including hole). No fish were recovered.

In November 2018, the Barra farm lost 24,572 salmon weighing an average 1.1kg, following winter storms.

Mowi Scotland has established high energy sites off

Rum and Muck, and has ambitions to expand production further away from enclosed lochs and into more exposed locations.

The most recent escape of almost harvest weight fish would have cost the company around £750,000 at today’s high prices.