Mowi first to try government-funded cage design
A new fish farming cage design launched by Inverness-based aquaculture supplier Gael Force at Aqua Nor in Trondheim, Norway last week is off to a flying start, with some cages already on site, the company has revealed.
Mowi Scotland has taken delivery of the first half of an order for a site at Loch Maddy, North Uist, said Gael Force managing director and owner Stewart Graham.
The rest of the SeaQurePen cages will be delivered shortly, with another cage order also due for delivery to Cooke Aquaculture Scotland.
Both orders were placed ahead of last week’s trade fair, where Scotland’s Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing helped officially launch the cage on the opening day.
High-energy sites
Scottish government agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise gave Gael Force a grant to cover half the near-£1 million cost of developing the pen, which is designed for the high-energy offshore sites that the country’s salmon farmers are being encouraged to expand into.
Gael Force marketing manager Marc Wilson said the company’s stand at Aqua Nor, nine times the size of the display it had at the last edition of Aqua Nor in 2017, had attracted visitors from a variety of countries, including Canada and Russia.
Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Alliance executive director Mark Lane was one of many visitors to the stand, along with Barry Manuel, mayor of Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, where Gael Force has opened a Canadian operating base.
