The kingmakers
‘This year the company is
looking to receive two million scallops from Norway’
for example, they produced 4.5 million. The spat are then fl own back to Scotland for on-growing. ‘The spat come in on discs about 30cm in diameter, about 5,000 spat to a disc,’ Grant explains. ‘They are put into polystyrene boxes and stored as hold luggage.’ The spat are then spread onto trays, or lanterns (Scot-Hatch has both, but Grant and Campbell are divided on which produces better results – Grant is for trays and Campbell for lanterns), which are hung from the longlines. At regular intervals the juvenile scallops are ‘brushed off’, thinned out to allow more room for growth. ‘The problem was that so much spat was being sent over we didn’t have enough trays,’ recalls Grant. ‘And we couldn’t believe the growth rates – a half-empty tray was full in a couple of weeks.’ One of the advantages of this process is that the scallops are produced out of season, which means that growth is much greater than you would see in the wild. ‘In the wild, scallops would normally spawn in about May and you would have a settlement in July, says Grant. ‘We are pushing this whole process forward by about eight to ten weeks, meaning that in the fi rst year they will grow 10-15mm more than if they were wild. ‘So when you get into September/October a wild scallop spat will be
around 10-15mm, whereas ours are around 20-30mm. You can put a scallop on the seabed when it’s about 40mm. Historically, you had to grow scallops on the longlines for a second year, but we’ll be able to put ours down the following spring.
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com ‘That second year on the longlines is horrible. You need so much more
equipment, and because the scallops are growing all the time it requires a lot more work. The scallops suffer too, because they get so dirty. The equipment also gets dirty as well because it’s doing a whole summer; in the fi rst year it doesn’t go into the sea until May, missing all of the weeds, which grow in March and April. It makes a massive difference. It also means that you don’t need as many longline sites, just more Several Orders.’ This equates to a 20 per cent reduction in production time and a 40 per cent reduction in the production cycle. For this year Grant will be even better prepared the company is looking to receive around two million scallops from Norway, and with enough trays and a strategy to ensure that the thinning out process is more effi cient, growth rates should be even better, and the harvest should be a good one. ‘Plus, the sea temperature is going to be high enough – the required eight degrees – to put our scallops in early,’ says Grant. Another advantage of ranching scallops is that they are relatively risk-
free compared to farming fi sh and other shellfi sh. ‘There are no known scallop diseases,’ says Grant. ‘And as long as your Several Order is well managed, the risk from predators such as brown crab and starfi sh, can be kept to a minimum. The longlines are also generally unaffected by storms as well.’ With proof that the system works, Scot-Hatch has developed a fi ve- year plan to expand the business. As well as extending the ranch, the
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