Aquaculture 101 – the Scottish sector Sarah Riddle & Sam Houston Subsea UK webinar, 04 November 2020 1 2 Aquaculture 101 – Scottish Aquaculture Sector By the end of today’s session, you should be able to describe Scotland’s aquaculture sector; name the key species farmed; appreciate biological aspects relevant to cultivation and have knowledge of the techniques used to culture these food organisms. Contents: • UK (Scottish) aquaculture • Finfish farming – 'the king of fish' • Shellfish aquaculture • Seaweeds – a carbon negative industry? 3 Scottish aquaculture Driving innovative technologies to transform Scottish aquaculture 4 UK aquaculture UK EXPORTS UK FY 2019 UK food & drink H1 2020 UK food & drink 2017 Scotland Values Value (ex-farm) Tonnes Value Share Atlantic salmon £1,050,976,780.00 189,707 96.96% Sea mussels £10,092,432.00 8,232 0.93% Rainbow trout £19,446,550.00 7,637 1.79% Pacific cupped oyster £2,015,000.00 403 0.19% 2017 Marine fishes -not elsewhere identified £947,100.00 77 0.09% Brown trout £165,300.00 57 0.02% European flat oyster £120,000.00 16 0.01% Queen scallop £33,000.00 11 0.00% Great Atlantic scallop £91,632.00 6 0.01% Other Salmonids £12,470.00 4.3 0.00% Grand Total £1,083,900,264.00 206150.3 5 Production geography • Aquaculture is a key industry to the Scottish economy • The sector is primed for sustainable growth • Innovation will play a major part in achieving industry and government ambitions 6 7 Finfish farming Atlantic salmon; trout; halibut; cleaner fish 8 9 Atlantic salmon lifecycle and production Lifecycle, Fidra 2020 Production, Mowi 2019 10 Broodstock - freshwater • Parents selected, eggs and sperm 'stripped' and fertilised • Incubation is in cool (2-10oC)dark oxygenated circulating water • After the fry absorbs its yolk sack, it is transferred to a first feeding tank and usually a further larger tank • Parr = small salmon in freshwater • Smolt = small salmon ready for saltwater • Smoltification – prepares the 'parr' for life at sea 'smolt' (light; special feed) – critical moment in production Thanks to Aquagen for photos 11 Marine phase: on-growing to harvest A marine fish farm consists of several structural elements: 1. Mooring grid 2. Floatation cages 3. Auxiliary equipment 4. Shore-based equipment 5. Vessels 12 (Image: Akva product manual) Financing fish farming • Phase 1: a single generation (G1) of salmon are growing, cost base develops slowly. • Phase 2: next generation of fish (G2) must begin while the cost base of maintaining G1 is accelerating. • Phase 3: third generation is started, cost base accelerates further; at end phase 3 G1 is harvested and revenue realised. • In this scenario, production is increased linearly. In steady state, the green line will be horizontal when Phase three is reached. • Phases 1-4 = X-axis • Fish farming is very capital intensive. • G1-3 = Generations 1-3 (dashed orange) • Vertical lines represent harvest of generation • Green line = operating capital 13 Vessels and marine operations Day-to-day workboats (RHIBs also used) Well-boat (land-based harvest) Medium workboat feeds/medications Harvest vessel (slaughter at sea) Feed storage barge Crowding (treatments/grading) Larger workboat (treatments/moorings) 14 Examples of cutting-edge technology Sea lice detection and counting Counting and biomass determination Subsea feeding IoT, AI and Machine vision – Feeding and pellet mainly found application in detection feeding i-farm – individualistic farming Net-cleaning ROV Akva; BioSort; GaelForce Fusion; InnovaSea; Aquabyte 15 Future fish farming • Recirculating Aquaculture Systems? • Offshore? • Semi-closed Containment Systems? 16 Shellfish aquaculture Scotland: prawns, mussels, oysters, scallops – many more species worldwide 17 Bivalve production Scotland 2019 MSS, 2020 18 Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group 19 Seaweeds A carbon-negative business supplying food, medicines, chemicals and packaging? 20 Seaweeds • Mostly farmed in Asia, China, Japan and Korea • Farming of seaweed in Europe and Scotland is limited • Farmed or harvested for food or chemicals (mostly hydrocolloids, e.g. alginate or carrageenan) • Many (~11,000) species: • Kelps: konbu, ma konbu, wakame – Umami taste to food (natural MSG) • Red seaweeds: Porphyra – Laverbread; Porphyra – Nori (Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker – ‘Mother of the sea’); Chondrus crispus – Carageenan/finings 21 Seaweed (kelp) – life/cultivation cycle Microscopic stages conducted on land in hatchery Ongrowing in the open sea Parent release ♂ / ♀ spores which settle and grow into gametophytes ♂ Gametophytes release gametes (sperm), which fertilises the ♀ gametophyte Gametophytes – some species can be Ongrowing / maintained under red light marine phase 22 Hatchery Gametophyte cultures can be stored for long periods and activated to produce gametes Some growth in hatchery (egg/sperm) Twine wound on spools is seeded Ready to deploy 23 Lines Grid Grow-out systems 24 Driving innovation in aquaculture 25 26 27 SAIC connects and collaborates with commercial businesses and academic partners 28 29.