A Scottish company that designs and manufactures technology for the global fish farming industry was one of the biggest winners at the recent Scottish Edge awards.
OTAQ won the £100,000 prize after commercial director Chris Hyde led the firm’s pitch on its launch product - an innovative deterrent system called SealFENCE which uses unique underwater acoustic technology to prevent seals from attacking marine fish farming sites.
Seal and sea lion attacks currently cost the fish farming industry over US$1 billion dollars a year worldwide as seals attack marine salmon farms for food, especially in the winter months. OTAQ’s system provides a solution to the growing problem.
From 239 original applicants, just 22 of Scotland’s most promising entrepreneurs were invited to pitch their businesses to an expert panel of judges in order to win up to £100,000 each in grant funding and loans. Just 15 of the start-up and growth stage businesses were successful, and only OTAQ and two others awarded the full amount applied for.
Mr Hyde said, “This award is going to make a major difference to our company and will mean that we can accelerate our export plans significantly, introduce our product to more markets and recruit more staff this year.
“Our company vision is to become world leaders in aquaculture technology and specifically in acoustic products such as predator control and monitoring systems. Our key area of expertise lies within underwater acoustics and sonar and we intend to build a reputation as experts in this field within our industry.”
