In a recent post I reported on the massive sales of Scottish Salmon across Europe and beyond. I opened with:
‘After investing more than £20 million in improving the health of Scotland’s farmed salmon stock (see ref below), the industry is now booming. In 2016, 75 000 tonnes, worth £451 million, were exported to 60 countries!’
There had been health problems reported a year or two earlier. This seems to be the basis for the recovery. The Ballan Wrasse is a cleaner fish that eats the sea lice which were responsible for problems with the Salmon. It’s a natural solution much preferable to a chemical one, I’d say. There’s also a Corkwing Wrasse.
The chair of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation said:
‘In particular, we want to highlight the successful introduction of wrasse as a very effective and environmentally friendly way to keep salmon free of lice, which occur naturally in the water. A significant variety of marine life thrives around salmon farms, something which is not fully recognised by regulators.’
Did they spend £20 million identifying the role of the Wrasse? Seems a lot.
Talking-up Scotland 
It might be interesting to follow up on that £20M. Who funded it? Who spent it and can we get a breakdown of how it was spent? Will it benefit other salmon producing countries? Did they share in the research costs?
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It would. Not sure how though.
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Hm. £20m does seem a lot considering a quick look on Wikipedia would have told them that the Norwegians already use Ballan Wrasse for this purpose. And that Orcadians enjoy eating them. (accompanied by fried lice perhaps?)
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FM ….. Much more likely they’d accompany the Ballan Wrasse with Fried RICE.
I thought some of our fish farms are run and owned by Norwegian fish farming companies. So they’d know about Ballan Wrasse. Even less need for tge £20m.
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Good one if probably racist these days.
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Good news for our sea lochs, areas around fish farms are being polluted by the anti Lice chemicals being used so far. Does tge use of tge Ballan Wrasse remove tge need for anti Sea Lice chemicals completely?
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CB I would hope so. Had a friend who farmed prawns (mostly for export to Spain) in West Highlands and went bust due to nearby salmon farm pollution. Also heard anecdotally that salmon in the area had to be starved for a week before being sold in order to get rid of the chemicals from their system.
No doubt the above would be disputed by salmon farmers but it would be great for everyone if this proves to be a viable natural solution.
They could maybe even combine it with farming the wrasse and selling it Orkney, you know, via the single *Scottish* market !
,
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Thanks
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