Scottish Sea Farms is opening a new inhouse incubation unit to help safeguard egg supply and fish survival.
The £2 million unit will open at the company’s Barcaldine Hatchery in Oban this autumn and will reduce the reliance on specialist suppliers.
The eggs will be received immediately post-stripping and fertilised and incubated on site before robust enough to be transferred to one of the company’s three hatcheries at Barcaldine, Knock on the Isle of Mull or Girlsta in Shetland.
“What we’re doing is creating a bespoke facility that will allow us to have greater control of the eggs even earlier in the production cycle,” said Scottish Sea Farms head of freshwater, Rory Conn.
“We’ll be able to take our time through these most critical initial stages, incubating the eggs for longer and at lower temperatures as we deem appropriate.”
Research suggest that lower early incubation temperatures can have better outcomes for fish health so being able to limit the temperature inhouse to around 2 or 3 degrees Celsius will be a key benefit of the new facility.
The firm’s recirculating aquaculture system also plays a crucial role in safeguarding welfare, drawing fresh water from a nearby reservoir before cleaning it with a system of filters and UV light.
“Within the new unit, there will be three similar RAS setups, supplying water to the racks where the new eggs are housed,” continued Conn.
“Any one of the racks can be supplied by an individual RAS setup so we can supply them all at different temperatures should we choose to – the importance being that it gives us control over how quickly or otherwise the ova develops.
“And because the water is so clean, it’s as safe as it can possibly be for the ova.”
