Loch Long Salmon has been granted an environmental permit for its proposed fish farm in Argyll, keeping it on course to become Scotland’s first semi-closed marine fish production facility.
Gaining the license from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is the latest in a series of regulatory approvals required before the farm can be deployed. It comes after a two-year program of surveys and modeling to demonstrate that the farm will not compromise the environmental quality of Loch Long.
The permit allows Loch Long Salmon to deploy five enclosures of 140-meter circumference, with a biomass limit of 3,452 metric tons (MT).
SEPA said it approved the license because more than 85 percent of the waste and uneaten food from the farm is collected internally at the bottom of the enclosure to be brought ashore and treated, reducing the environmental impact of the site and protecting the seabed and surrounding marine environment.
Semi-closed farming systems look much like conventional pens from above, but underwater they have an opaque, impermeable outer barrier that surrounds the fish net, according to Loch Long Salmon Director Stewart Hawthorn. This farming system has been operating in Norway since 2014 and is now being deployed in the Faroes and Canada, but this is the first time it will be used in Scotland.
“This exemplar project provides an opportunity to show closer to home what is possible and to secure the future of the salmon farming industry in Scotland. It will, reduce environmental impacts while continuing to support vital jobs and economies in rural Scotland,” Hawthorn said. “With this SEPA license, I hope the Planning Authority will act quickly to grant permission so that we can begin construction of this exciting project.”
Loch Long Salmon has submitted a planning application to Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority for determination in early 2022, which would allow construction on the Beinn Reithe site to begin by the end of this year.
The company was created by the Simply Blue Group through its Simply Blue Aquaculture subsidiary and aquaculture sales and service supply company Trimara Services UK., with the objective of producing 15,000 to 20,000 MT of salmon annually.
Photo courtesy of Loch Long Salmon
