Net gains as Mørenot Scotland and Plany sign agency deal
Net and moorings provider Mørenot Scotland has signed an agreement to act as the UK and Ireland agent for aquaculture supplier, Plany.
The deal formalises an existing arrangement between the Norwegian companies.
Mørenot Scotland managing director David Goodlad said: “We’ve never really advertised the fact that we are the Plany agent for the UK and Ireland, but we can now give it more emphasis.
“We can practically offer anything that fish farmers require.”
Freshwater reservoirs
Plany supplies a number of tarpaulin and fabric products such as lice shields, freshwater reservoirs, light control tents, cleaner fish hides and lice filters for mechanical delousing.
Its Oxyshield concept combines a supply of pure oxygen to fish pens in combination with lice shields, solving the problem of reduced oxygen levels in cages with shields.
Goodlad said Mørenot Scotland had supplied several of Plany’s freshwater reservoirs.
Predator-resistant netting
Mørenot Scotland, which has bases in Scalloway, Shetland and at Scalpay, on the eastern side of Harris, has had a mixed year because of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the salmon industry but has managed to keep operating throughout, said Goodlad.
More salmon farmers are choosing predator-resistant HDPE netting, he said, and there has been strong demand from Mowi for circular “environets” – effectively two nets stitched together.
This avoids the need for net cleaning because one half of the net is always drying out on stanchions on the side of the pen collar, which means any biofouling dies and falls off. The fact that the nets are attached means each half can be moved in or out of the water regularly without having to empty the pen, as fish are kept contained during the “swim through”.
“Mowi in Canada is looking at them, and Mowi Ireland was looking at 126-metre-circumference nets,” said Goodlad, who has so far been supplying 120m nets to Mowi Scotland.
“I have a design for a 160m net but we have not produced one yet.”
