First fish stocked at Westerbister
Scottish Sea Farms' new salmon site on Orkney, which will create six full time jobs, has been stocked for the first time.
The £3.5 million Westerbister site consists of 16 x 100m cages, with consent for 1791 tonnes of salmon production, making it the second largest Scottish Sea Farms site in Orkney.
It has created six new jobs locally, with five appointments already in place and the site has brought positive benefits to several suppliers – a new barge and moorings were purchased from Inverness-based Gael Force Group, cages from Fusion Marine in Argyll, nets from Knox and on site cameras from Steinsvik GMT.
Stewart Graham, Managing Director of Gael Force, said: “We were delighted to build this barge here in the Highlands for Scottish Sea Farms. The contract sustained up to 14 jobs within Gael Force and our local supply chain.”
Richard Darbyshire, Regional Manager of Scottish Sea Farms, said: “This will significantly increase production of our quality product farmed in Orkney waters. The smolts that are placed in the water now will be harvested in early 2018. This site will help to support Scotland in delivering growth to meet an unprecedented global and domestic demand, today and into the future. Westerbister is the culmination of four years of consultation and hard work to ensure that we can grow and create brand new jobs in Orkney and sustain the wider local economy. These new full time jobs come with training packages and offer real long-term careers in the aquaculture industry.”
