INSTITUTE OF AQUACULTURE
30 years of Scottish Aquaculture
Stirling service PROVIDING ACADEMIC BACK-UP FOR THE INDUSTRY AND BEYOND By Rodney Wootten the world.
As the global aquaculture industry developed, the unit broadened its interests beyond fish health into many other research areas – including ge- netics, reproduction, nutrition and environmental impact. In 1978 it re-branded itself as the Institute of Aquaculture to encompass this wider range of activity. As well as continuing to serve the UK industry, the Institute, with strong support from the UK Overseas Devel- opment Administration (Now DFID), became truly global in its research. Of special importance was its work in Asia, where it helped develop regional centres of excellence in aquaculture, often with the help of its alumni.
T
he Institute of Aquacul- ture has, for 38 years, played a major role in the development of aquacul- ture in the UK and many other parts of the world. In 1971 Ron Roberts, then at the Glasgow Veterinary School, obtained funding from the Nuffield Foundation to establish a unit of Aquatic Pathobiology, based at the University of Stirling. Gather- ing together a small group of young scientists – including Randolph Richards, Christina Sommerville, Jonathan Shep- herd and Ian Macrae – Ron began to research many of the health problems affecting farmed fish (mainly trout) in the UK. Together with some of the pioneering farmers – including Graeme Gordon, Stuart Cannon, Guy Mace and
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Roger Thwaites, to name only a few – the unit defined many important disease condi- tions and developed control methods.
Training Together with this extensive research programme, unit staff recognised the need for training for industry personnel and associated profession- als, and set up short intensive courses in fish disease, which are still running today, having trained many hundreds of students. At the same time the unit taught MSc courses in Aquatic Veterinary Stud- ies/Aquatic Pathobiology, later followed by an MSc in Aqua- culture – a general vocational course covering aspects of the subject. These courses, which still attract many students, are
Opening the Institute’s courtyard garden in 1985 (above); Professor Steve George
now offered in a distance- learning format, and have trained many industry man- agers and professionals who hold senior positions around
As it expanded the Insti- tute acquired new facilities and aquariums. Particularly significant was the acquisition of Howietoun Fish Farm, near Stirling. Under the Director- ship of Derek Robertson, this was renovated as a model farm and research facility and it is still an important supplier both of salmon smolts to the industry and brown trout for recreational fisheries. In 1992 a large-scale marine research facility, Machrihanish Marine Environmental Laboratory, was opened in Kintyre. The Institute has successfully carried out many projects that have made a major contribu- tion to the aquaculture indus- try. For example, in the field of fish health, Institute scientists carried out much of the fun- damental research into the biology of sea lice, defining
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