Top award win for world-leading aquaculture institute

The University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture has triumphed at a national awards ceremony.

At the Aquaculture Awards, the Institute of Aquaculture (IoA) won in the ‘Applied Research Breakthrough’ category, as part of a collaborative project involving Mowi, Scottish Sea Farms, BioMar and the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre.

Professor Herve Migaud, IoA Personal Chair, said “I am delighted that the collaborative project received the award. This has been a great team work and I’m grateful to all partners, students and Stirling colleagues for their hard work.”

In the four-year project, the partners sought to address knowledge gaps in ballan wrasse biology and fast-track domestication of the species.

Dr Andrew Davie, IoA Senior Lecturer, said: “While key milestones have been achieved in the farming of ballan wrasse, cleaner fish is still in the research and development phase and more research is required to upscale production and meet industry requirements for farmed, robust and effective ballan wrasse.

“There is a clear urgency in producing the numbers required; however, it must be acknowledged it’s only four years since the first spawning events in captivity in Scotland.”

Results from the project were presented at a workshop on 23 May at the Stirling Court Hotel on the University of Stirling’s campus, bringing together 50 representatives from across the Scottish and Norwegian academic and salmon farming sector.

Professor Herve Migaud added: “This has been a very successful project and workshop, which celebrated the significant achievements that have been realised but, equally, clearly identified the direction for future activity.

“Throughout the workshop, it was clear that there is a very strong commitment from both the industry and academic community to address remaining bottlenecks, which will ultimately ensure the effective and widespread implementation of farmed ballan wrasse in Scotland is realised to control sea lice.

“Coming years will see the upscaling of this innovative pest management strategy, contributing to help make the salmon industry more resilient.”

Find out about the latest findings on ballan wrasse research from our international workshop at the University of Stirling.

Left to right

Dr. Ralph Bickerdike – Head of Fish Health & Technical - Scottish Sea Farms Limited

Dr. Patrick Campbell – Vice President - Salmon Division, BioMar

Martin Gill - Head of Aquaculture and Fisheries - Lloyds Register

Gideon Pringle – Operations Director - MOWI Scotland

Professor Herve Migaud – Head of Breeding and genetic improvement research group - University of Aquaculture, Institute of Aquaculture