HEAD TO THE HIGHLANDS IN 3 WEEKS’ TIME FOR AQUACULTURE AWARDS 2023

Head to the Highlands in 3 weeks’ time for Aquaculture Awards 2023. In just over three weeks the aquaculture community will gather in Inverness for the Aquaculture Awards 2023, celebrating the outstanding achievements of individuals and businesses in the sector over the past year.

The awards, to be announced at a gala dinner at Macdonald Drumossie hotel in Inverness on Thursday, June 15, are presented annually to aquaculture’s game changers, trend setters, leaders, and the farm staff who go the extra mile.

With 13 categories – including, for the first time, Best New Start-up – this year’s awards will honour the hard work and high standards across the sector, both in the UK and overseas.

On top of prizes for Farmer of the Year, Supplier of the Year, and Aquaculture Company of the Year, there will be awards, too, for Sustainability, Community Initiative and Animal Welfare.

Making the shortlist are representatives from throughout the Scottish salmon sector and from further afield, with the stars and stalwarts of today and tomorrow recognised for their contribution to aquaculture.

The Best New Start-up award sees competition from Ireland’s Aqualicense, and the UK’s ThinkAqua and Wellfish Diagnostics, while the contenders for the Innovation award extend from Norway’s Marine Donut concept, to Switzerland’s device for assessing salmon fillet pigmentation, to the Tassie Devil net cleaner from Australia.

British trout farmer Selcoth Fisheries and salmon giant Mowi are up against Kilbirnie based W & J Knox for the Sustainability prize, while three more UK based companies – Underwater Contracting, Tom Morrow Tarpaulins, and Ocean On Land Technology – vie for the Supplier of the Year award.

In perhaps the most hotly contested category, the judges had to select just three Rising Stars – Scottish Sea Farms’ Alison Brough, Mowi’s Eleanor Lawrie, and Kames Fish Farming’s Ben Leigh, all names to watch in the future.

The judges have been drawn from academia, sector bodies, marketing and the media and include Professor David Little from the Institute of Aquaculture; Heather Jones, CEO of the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC); and Nicki Holmyard, communications specialist and mussel farming pioneer.

Host for the night is comedian Jo Caulfield, described as ‘one of the finest female comics at work’, a regular on TV and at the Edinburgh Festival and voted the Comedians’ Comedian of the Year by her peers last year.

More than 300 sector figures will be attending the awards to share their colleagues’ achievements and to enjoy the unrivalled networking opportunities offered by this key event in the aquaculture calendar.

Cheri Arvonio, Awards Director, said:

‘The Aquaculture Awards are back by popular demand, with 13 coveted categories championing the successes of the year, both on a business and a personal level.

‘We look forward to bringing the sector together again in the Scottish Highlands for a night of celebration, socialising and guaranteed fun.’

A handful of tickets remain for the Aquaculture Awards (email gailh@divcom.co.uk), which are staged by Diversified Communications, organisers of Aquaculture UK, the UK’s largest exhibition for the aquaculture community, held bi-annually in Aviemore.

For the full Aquaculture Awards 2023 shortlist and for further details of the awards night visit https://aquacultureawards.com/awards-evening-2/.