CONTAINMENT SPECIAL
WELLBOATS
WELLBOATS best practice
TIPS FOR ENSURING THE SAFE HANDLING OF WELLBOATS ON SITE T
he increased use of modern wellboats for a variety of operational tasks has been one of the more dramatic changes in Scotland’s salmon farming industry during the last decade. Ian Armstrong, of Nevis Marine, explains both the improvements the vessels have brought to matters of containment and how to minimise the risks that these wellboats could pose to keeping fish safely contained.
Improvements and opportunities Wellboats offer a number of improvements over traditional practices:
• Grading and moving fish within a site: wellboats minimise the use of mobile cages, which is especially important on remote and exposed sites. Mobility creates risks by its very nature, and during cage movements it is possible for cages to move outwith acoustic deterrents, for example, as well as allowing for increased oppor- tunities of nets snagging and tearing on boats or underwater objects. This is par- ticularly useful when remote, offshore sites are involved and – without wellboats – it is
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unlikely that the possibility of the devel- opment of offshore aquaculture would be seriously considered. • Harvesting: wellboats allow live fish to be securely transported to a single harvest station, both ensuring that they are fresh for delivery to the consumer and that they are safely contained in transit. In the past in Scotland mobile cages were commonly used to take fish to coastal pump-ashore stations. Such methods are still permitted in other parts of the world, such as Tas- mania, where cages are still towed to the harvest site, making them more vulner- able to both attacks from predators and increased risks of chafing and snagging.
Risks and how to minimise them There are a number of containment risks as- sociated with using wellboats and there has been one escape incident in Scotland caused by the collision of one of these vessels with a cage. However, given the right protocols – as instigated by both the wellboat company and the fish farm management – the probability of such an incident can be minimised.
WITHOUT WELLBOATS IT IS UNLIKELY THAT
OFFSHORE AQUACULTURE WOULD BE POSSIBLE
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PHOTO: SEAN LYDON
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