GOOD WEATHER FOR GREAT SALMON

Good weather for great salmon.  While the weather so far into summer 2024 hasn’t been the greatest for Scotland’s sun-worshippers, the relatively mild temperatures and cloudy skies are what’s best suited for salmon.

Back to normal sea temperatures are helping Mowi farmers grow top-quality salmon.

Salmon can live within wide-ranging water temperatures in some regions above 20 degrees, however, it’s the tiny organisms that thrive in warmer waters that can cause challenges to the health and survival of salmon and other fish. These challenges brought on by warming temperatures can include jellyfish and copepods, as well as seasonally lower dissolved oxygen levels (warmer waters carry less oxygen).

Sea temperatures the last few years in the North Atlantic had been running well above average.

Seasonally average temperatures so far into 2024 have helped Mowi’s salmon farmers effectively manage sea lice levels on their fish to the lowest levels seen in 20 years. And while it’s still early in the season to rule out threatening jellyfish and plankton blooms, learning from previous years have helped farmers prepare ward off these microorganisms with newly installed technologies such as bubble curtains, and includes a big push on identification through training, use of drones and other sampling techniques.

Sean Anderson, Mowi Scotland’s Production Director, said:

“It’s still early on in the challenging summer period, but so far our salmon are fairing very well. They are feeding to expected appetite and we are managing to deal with the minor plankton blooms witnessed so far by implementing our mitigation technologies. After a few challenging years it’s been nice to have Mother Nature be gentle on us – our salmon are thriving and they look amazing.”

Ben Hadfield, Mowi’s COO Farming (Scotland, Ireland, The Faroes and Canada East), made sure to include a visit with farm manager Calum “Chin” MacDonald to celebrate Chin’s 35 year anniversary at Mowi. Ben added: “The first half of this year has yielded excellent biological results, with salmon harvests across all sites yielding better than 97% average of superior, top-quality salmon. I was pleased to travel about our farms this past month and meet many of our dedicated farmers, like Chin who is celebrating 35 years with the company, who are very proud of the high quality salmon they are caring for.”

Mowi Scotland reports an increase in harvest volumes (and larger average weights) for the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023 – 33,705 tonnes (2024) versus 29,651 tonnes (2023).

Image (l-r): Mowi’s Cameron Jones, Calum MacDonald, Don MacLeod with market-sized salmon at Cheesebay, Uist)