Lantra, an accreditation body that develops training programs and qualifications in the land-based environment sector of the United Kingdom and Ireland, has expanded its focus to include aquaculture for the first time.
According to a release from Lantra, the new program will create a U.K.-wide training initiative focused on mitigating the challenges associated harmful algal blooms (HABs). The new program is being funded by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) UK Seafood Fund: Skills and Training Scheme.
“With decades of experience providing training and qualifications for people at all stages of their careers, Lantra is very well placed to take on the next stage of the HABs initiative,” Lantra Head of Aquaculture Jillian Couto-Phoenix said. “Employers in the aquaculture sector will already be familiar with the services Lantra provides, so we see this as a natural addition to our aquaculture offering.”
Lantra said the new training will help ensure the workforce in the U.K. follows standard operating procedures for detecting and reporting HABs in coastal waters. Those operating procedures were first established as part of the Farmed Fish Health Framework created by the Scottish government.
“The ambition is to create a more consistent and effective reporting system for the entire sector that can inform predictive models and early-warning systems,” Lantra said.
The training will feature a course created in partnership with the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Center and the Scottish Association for Marine Science, and has details on how to sample and identify a list of targeted species and how to determine the level of risk.
The program has also received advice from a number of companies in the aquaculture space, including Mowi, Scottish Sea Farms, Loch Duart, and Bakkafrost.
“The user-friendly, introductory-level course is designed to be accessible and understandable, enabling the sector to work together on tackling the challenges associated with HABs,” Couto-Phoenix said. “Timing is key, and we’ll be rolling out the training ahead of the summer season, which is when HABs can be most prevalent.”
Couto-Phoenix said the training is especially important given the increasing prevalence of HABs due to warming waters and climate change.
“They are only likely to become more of a concern in years to come so it is important to have every technician, operator and manager working under the same operating procedures,” Couto-Phoenix said. “In the future, we can foresee creating additional modules, covering, for example, blooms of micro jellyfish, which can lead to similar concerns for fish health and welfare.”
