News & Views
New salmon hatchery planned for Marine Harvest Scotland

Marine Harvest Scotland’s new hatchery planned for Glenmoriston on the west coast of Scotland has received approval from the Highlands Council’s South Planning Applications Committee, but construction won’t begin till next year.

When complete, the £10.4million ($16m USD) facility is projected to have the capacity to produce 6.5 million large parr and 4.5 million smolts per year according to information provided by the company.

         The new facility replaces an existing 37-year-old hatchery (now removed) which the company obtained in 2013. The staff have moved temporarily to other company operations and are expected to be included among the 20-22 staff when the new hatchery opens.

         The new building will be 165 metres long and up to 83 metres wide.

The 2-storey front elevation will include staff facilities such as changing rooms, canteen, offices and workshop on the ground floor, and grading and vaccination facilities on the upper floor. The main building will include fibreglass rearing tanks for fry and smolts, water treatment works, sterilization tanks and incubation units, as well as equipment to clean and treat the water.

The other “most significant change” is that the unit will operate entirely on water recirculation, reducing freshwater intake and discharge – to a minimum.

         John Richmond, MHS’s hatcheries-area manager and program manager for this development told Hatchery International that the company bought the hatchery site and several ocean net-pen operations from Morpol in 2013. But it was ordered to divest itself of the sea sites because it had overstepped its regulated limit on share of the Scottish salmon-farming industry.

– Quentin Dodd