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The Grower January 2020 - 1 The Grower Newsletter for the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers January 2020 The Spirit of the ASSG Conference 2019 INSIDE THIS 24 PAGE ISSUE Forthcoming 2 Events CEO’s Column 3-5 ASSG 6-8 Conference Report of 9-10 NAEMO Letters to the 11 Editor Photo credit ; JHBrown Help with 12 The annual ASSG conference got off to a good start, opened by Scottish Biosecurity Government’s Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougeon MSP. (See full report pages 6-8) Here Dr Nick Lake, CEO causes her some mirth but News from 13- what has he said to amuse her so much? Please send your suggestions to be published in NORA 14 the next issue of The Grower due out April 1st 2020 (printable, non-libellous and non- political Ed.). There will be a small prize for the best entry. Maybe the prize will be for Sandsound 15 what was in fact the actual comment? The ASSG is very grateful for the generous sponsorship that supports the conference. Mussels World Oyster 23 Congress PHOTONEWS 24 Advertising The Grower is Season’s greetings to all our distributed to all members of the ASSG, readers to policy makers and scientists with interest in shellfish and is sent electronically all over the world to shellfish The Grower is a quarterly newsletter edited by Janet H. Brown, The Shellfish Team, 2 farmers and their ilk. It Annfield Grove, Stirling, FK8 2BN [email protected] For membership of ASSG contact CEO Dr Nick Lake, Mendosa, Court Hill Road, Rosemarkie, Black Isle, is also available online Ross-shire, IV10 8UE [email protected] at www.assg.org.uk For further information see our web site at www.assg.org.uk Why not advertise to our Disclaimer: Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official specialist readership? view of the Association The Grower January 2020 - 2 Shellfish Conference, Neeltje Jans, The Netherlands Every 2 years, when the shellfish are not doing much and it is too cold to want to do much oneself, the Dutch shellfish industry provides an incentive to go to Holland for a shellfish conference. 2020 is the year for the next event and the organisers have assembled a very tempting line-up of speakers for 16-17 January at the Delta Works, Neeltje Jans. The theme is opportunities and innovations in the programme can be accessed at shellfish industry but will start with what the industry schelpdierconferentie.com/en/program/ cannot and should not avoid - banging the drum for the very real benefits of shellfish culture. Thus the talks will start with a keynote speech on the role of shellfish production in a circular economy, and go on through talks addressing topics such as the nutritional advantages of shellfish and climate proof culture. This latter topic is a talk by Dr Henrice Jansen who spoke at the ASSG conference this year about shellfish as carbon and nitrogen sink. The role of shellfish culture in water, coastal and nature management will be another topic. The innovations part will be addressed in the afternoon, with 3D visualization, biotoxins, plus sales talks. It will conclude with Nicki Holmyard dealing with the Brexit impacts of shellfish trade. Good luck Nicki! The Friday programme will deliver more experience led talks hearing from practitioners and researchers Pictured above; aerial view of the Delta Works from Ireland, France, Portugal, and the UK in what controlling seawater flow between the North Sea and the looks like a most interesting programme which will be Oosterschelde. reported on in the next issue of The Grower. The full Dates for your diary Contact details Editor of The Grower Janet H Brown, Shellfish meeting, Neeltje Jans, Netherlands 2 Annfield Grove, Stirling, FK8 2BN January 16 - 17, 2020 [email protected] Joint meeting ICSR / Australian Shellfish Reef CEO Nick Lake, Mendosa, Court Hill Road, Restoration Network Rosemarkie, Black Isle, Ross-shire, IV10 8UE Port Stephens, NSW, Australia [email protected] March 17 - 20, 2020 National Shellfisheries Association Treasurer Baltimore, Maryland Stephen Cameron, [email protected] March 29 - April 3, 2020 www.shellfish.org/annual-meeting Other members of management committee;- Oyster growers’ workshop, ASSG event, Oban Patrick Blow [email protected] March 30, 2020 Ruth Henderson [email protected] Aquaculture UK, Aviemore Tristan Hugh-Jones [email protected] May 19 - 21, 2020 Michael Tait [email protected] Gordon Turnbull [email protected] EAS Conference Mark Woollard [email protected] Cork September 29 - 0ctober 2, 2020 ASSG Annual Conference October 8-9, 2020 Corran Halls, Oban, Scotland The Grower January 2020 - 3 CEO’s Column Nick’s Notes Seasons Greetings! The television adverts are dominated by expensive toys and perfumes - and so I guess we must be approaching Christmas! The seafood market is buoyant at this time and Scottish shellfish products are featured in some high- profile advertising. Hopefully all producers will feel the benefit of such seasonal demand and safely cope during harvesting, with the somewhat volatile weather Dr Nick Lake, CEO of the Association of Scottish conditions we are currently experiencing. Shellfish Growers (ASSG) Approaching year end home and abroad will have at least revised the “Fake Certainly, this has been a difficult year to news” and “Nay sayers” views on shellfish characterise in terms of progress with shellfish consumption, impacts of cultivation and the state of the cultivation aspirations in Scotland? The politics of Brexit marine environment. Equally they showed that there is a seem to have stymied any logical debate with respect to real appetite from those actually producing, rather than desired interventions from the public sector and simply talking about opportunities, to further develop agencies, and also evidenced in the UK by the winding production and deliver all of the employment, health, down of EU structural investment. biodiversity, water quality, nutrition, economic and The ASSG Oban conference at the end of October carbon footprint benefits of ensuring supplies of bivalve was a great success and appears to have been enjoyed by shellfish are widely available and accessible to all. speakers and delegates alike. Thanks to all those who Shellfish have a clear role in the mitigation of the overall took part and helped with the smooth running including impacts of climate change – some countries are already our sponsors Crown Estate Scotland, Marine Scotland exploring the opportunities, and the lessons learnt need and the support from Seafish. A full report on to be considered and acted on by others. proceedings appears later in this issue of The Grower. The day before the event saw a North Atlantic and Changing circumstances European Mussel Organisation (NAEMO) workshop Never has there appeared to be such a positive being hosted with the assistance of Marine Scotland. impact that bivalve shellfish could make in sustaining This brought together all those researchers and agencies our environment, economy and in part our health and within the area interested in the health of blue mussel security, when viewed in the context of the radically stocks and the linkages to aquaculture production. The changing climate. However, in Scotland it does appear findings are also summarised in this issue. that we have so far failed to adequately describe and In general, the perception is that even with a widely quantify these benefits for the appropriate policy distributed species such as Mytilus spp. there are makers? recurring themes becoming evident in the wild We are faced with a period of unprecedented change populations which may be part of natural cycles or could in our operational as well as natural environment, which be signs of stressors having an impact on survival and will play out over several generations. Set against such a performance. The important point being that we have not background it will require a concerted effort by industry spent enough time or resources on understanding the to convince our politicians of the positive and innovative basic biology of a species upon which we have become role shellfish cultivation businesses can play, both in the reliant. In this respect we need to ensure we continue to rural economy and in the wider national interest. work with all our international colleagues in seeking to Industry is well placed to be innovative in the way it understand the dynamics of a humble species and its can overcome operational issues. However, what is environmental interactions. Against a background of required is a public sector which is also able to react climate change, I fear that we have made this task timeously to the challenges that environmental change considerably more difficult and equally more important. will bring, and be prepared to adapt to evolving The question is how much of a priority can we make circumstances and invest accordingly. such an issue on any national or international political Investment breeds success and governance agenda? One of our nearest neighbours has pursued a similar Conferring path to Scotland in developing rural employment Was there an overall take-home message from the through aquaculture production. However, outcomes are conference theme of “resilience” of the Scottish shellfish currently surprisingly different. BIM the Irish Seafood sector? From my perspective it was – we have a range of Development Agency has recently published as part of talented and tenacious people engaged in the running of their National Seafood Survey – Aquaculture Report our shellfish cultivation and supply businesses - and they 2019. need all the support they can get from the public sector if It makes interesting reading from a bivalve shellfish the real potential of such production is to be realised. perspective in terms of similarities and disparities.