Mowi prepares for big switch at Loch Awe
Fish farmer is changing species and infrastructure as it repurposes sites for large smolts
Salmon farmer Mowi Scotland plans to grow 5 million large smolts per year in Loch Awe, the company says.
The move brings the curtain down on decades of trout farming in the freshwater loch and follows the end of Mowi’s lease for a freshwater site in Loch Arkaig.
Mowi has two sites in the loch: at Tervine, close to the Cruachan hydro power station, and at Braevallich, towards the southern end of the loch. The sites are among those acquired when Mowi bought trout farmer Dawnfresh in February 2023. Tervine was first registered as a fish farm in 1978, and Braevallich in 1985.
Trout production was continued at the sites after the acquisition of Dawnfresh, but Mowi is now switching them to Atlantic salmon post-smolt production and will re-equip the farms for their new role.
40 years ar Arkaig
“Mowi has farmed at Loch Arkaig, a freshwater farm, for 40 years,” the company said in a statement.
“Mowi’s lease for this site is with a private landlord who now wishes to move in a different direction. Mowi will therefore cease farming here in April but take forward experience and strong scientific evidence showing that there is no detrimental environmental impact from farming salmon here. Mowi has led the way in sustainable freshwater loch farming; amassing a large database showing how our operations are run sustainably with the freshwater environment.
“We look forward to moving to two new production sites at Tervine and Braevallich, formerly Dawnfresh sites in Loch Awe. Here, the aim is to produce a combined 5 million fish annually.
“These sites will be undergoing a major overhaul early this year with upgrades to a more efficient and standardised set-up featuring 60-metre circumference pens (20 at each site), new feed systems and upgrades to the shore areas to allow for smolt inputs and transfers.
All staff will be retained at both sites as this will be a challenging venture moving from trout to salmon
Mowi Scotland
“We will continue to operate the stocking plan of large vaccinated parr coming into Loch Awe sites, with the hope this will allow us to produce some much larger smolts at ~250g average weight for Loch Etive.
“All staff will be retained at both sites as this will be a challenging venture moving from trout to salmon and we expect to have a total of around 19 people working here.”
Lower salinity
Mowi’s sites at Loch Etive – also acquired in the Dawnfresh buy-out – are being used to grow large post-smolts of up to 1 kg in brackish water. The high sill at the entrance to sea loch, together with a large freshwater catchment from the surrounding hills, means Etive has a lower salinity than other sea lochs. Mowi believes that this – combined with regular fallowing of all Etive sites at the same time – will mitigate or negate the need for lice treatments.
The largest salmon produced in Loch Etive will be transferred to the company’s high energy marine sites, where bigger, more robust fish can fare better than smaller fish.
Fish grown on in Loch Awe must be transferred from the hatchery to the loch, and from the loch to Etive, by road. Fish are transferred from Loch Etive to marine sites by wellboat.
