Marine / Salmon farm company exploring new development off Skerries
SCOTTISH Sea Farms (SSF) is to consult the Skerries community next week on the idea of a salmon farm in waters near to the outlying isles.
The project is in its early stages but an indicative configuration places a farm with ten 160 metre pens off the west of Skerries.
Scottish Sea Farms said this area has “ideal environmental conditions for the best fish welfare and production”.
The company, which operates a number of salmon farms in Shetland, is holding a consultation event at the Skerries hall next Thursday (9 October) between 12pm and 8pm.
SSF said it will host presentations with Q&A sessions that day at 1pm and 7pm. More information can be found here.
However, the proposal has drawn concern from fishermen over the threat of being displaced from fishing grounds.
Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA) executive officer Sheila Keith said salmon farm companies should look elsewhere if their developments will take away known fishing grounds.
SSF meanwhile said shorebase options will be explored once it has a proposed site development plan.
Its website says a farm near Skerries – which used to host a salmon farm before it closed in the 2010s – could “improve the working age and employment rate, increase access to health and transport and present opportunities for investment”.
It adds: “As with our other farms, each pen would be stocked to RSPCA Assured densities of just 1.5 per cent fish to 98.5 per cent water.
“What this means for proposed tonnage and maximum permitted biomass at Skerries still needs to be confirmed, once we have a proposed site development plan.”
SSF said adjacent to the pens would be a feed barge housing a camera-monitored feeding system, office and welfare facilities for the farm team, and a store for fish feed.
The idea of a salmon in the waters around Skerries, which has a population of around 30, has already been up for discussion at the isles’ community council this year.
Skerries Community Council chairman Paul Fraser noted objections from local fishermen.
He said however that his overall focus is on “making sure Skerries remains viable as a community”.
“The employment Scottish Sea Farms will bring is important along with the justification for infrastructure improvements,” he said.
“Generally the community welcomes the opportunity.”
Minutes from the community council show that SSF spoke at its April meeting, asking what it would mean for Skerries if the company was to progress plans.
The minutes said eight jobs could potentially be created, while there was mention of how salmon farms can now be placed in more open waters compared to years gone by.
But a scallop fisherman spoke at the meeting to say it would be a “disaster” for their business.
He said that white fishing would also be affected.
The fisherman added that current meter buoys which have been in the water were in the middle of their fishing grounds.
Speaking to Shetland News, Keith said the fishermen’s association’s position remains the same – that new salmon farms should not be located in traditional fishing grounds.
“We’ve made that representations to them in every meeting that we’ve had regarding new sites, and expansion of sites – that they shouldn’t be taking up scallop fishing grounds when we’ve informed them of that all the way through,” she said.
Keith added that the SFA has opposed the proposals.
SSF’s head of sustainability and development Anne Anderson had said at a meeting of Skerries Community Council that the planning process would cover environmental, social and economic impacts.
Minutes from a June meeting of the community council said an idea was raised during discussion among members that should the salmon farm go ahead, Skerries should be given a form of “compensation” every year that could be used to benefit the isles.
Discussion also highlighted how the company should be “extremely specific” about what chemicals would be used.
Members were also keen to have “guarantees and assurances” on elements such as employment and infrastructure.
“For example, if they say they are going to provide jobs, will they be based in Skerries, or will they be coming from Lerwick every day?” the minutes read.
Anyone with questions about the proposed Skerries salmon farm can also contact development@scottishseafarms.com or write to Development team, Scottish Sea Farms, Barcaldine Hatchery, Glen Dubh Walk, Oban, Argyll, PA37 1SQ.
Last year SSF received planning consent for its large Billy Baa development to the west of South Whiteness which will consolidate a number of existing consents in the area and is due to open next year.
It has consent for more than 4,000 tonnes.
The planning process is also in process for SSF’s Fish Holm development in Yell Sound, which would also consolidate licences but have a larger biomass at proposed biomass of 6,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile the topic of old salmon farm equipment and debris which remains in Skerries was mentioned at April’s community council meeting.
The debris was described as an “eyesore, [a] health hazard, bad for the tourist industry, and could put off inward investment”.
It is said some of the cages there may have originated from around the year 2000.
Ruth Henderson from Seafood Shetland attended the meeting and said aquaculture clean-ups have happened in the past, including at the Loch of Strom, adding that the organisation would be keen to help.
Anderson also said SSF could help out, with the industry said to be interested in cleaning up fishing-related debris.
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