IS THERE A FUTURE FOR SCOTTISH FARMED SCALLOPS?

Is there a future for Scottish farmed scallops? One area of Scottish shellfish aquaculture that would seem to have good potential for growth is king and queen scallop production – although there are technical and biological challenges that still need to be overcome.

The lack of Scottish scallop production is borne out by the Scottish Shellfish Farm Production Survey 2023, which reveals that there was a decrease in king scallop production since 2022, from 39,000 to 24,000 shells, and for queen scallops it was non-existent or minimal at best.

At first glance, it would appear the potential for growth in the farmed scallop sector is good, given the strong market demand for the shellfish and the environmentally friendly manner of production, which would appeal to consumers. However, these plus-points have been overcome by the challenges of production on an economically viable scale.

Dr Nick Lake, CEO of the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers, was involved in much of the early research and development work at the Seafish research facility at Ardtoe in the 1980s. He told Fish Focus that several issues are holding back future development.

He said:

“A range of technical issues has seen a progressive decline in outputs and I suspect what is reported now is diver caught wild stock – kept in areas on the seabed until it achieves a premium market size. The last commercial queen scallop farm was on Loch Fyne, but this has not survived.

“There are two key issues – firstly we never achieved a hatchery production of seed and it all had to be collected from the wild. The Norwegians did produce King scallop seed but there was not a large enough industry to sustain hatchery production other than for research.

“However, the French research institute IFREMER has seeded the bay the Rade de Brest with hatchery produced stock and the Irish in Connemara have also done a lot of work.

“The second and major issue is that the seed has to be held off the seabed to avoid predation and this allows a large amount of biofouling on the holding nets and equipment. The cost of keeping the stock clear from fouling in the first two years is not commercially viable. Placing back on the seabed after two years avoids the predation and fouling – but requires another two to three years to reach the legal marketable size of 110mm, so the economics don’t really stack-up at the moment.”

He added:

“Holding onto the seabed and maintaining property rights requires a Several Fishery Order, which has to be granted by a Scottish Government Minister. This is a lengthy process that is difficult to justify as it is still the applicant who has to physically protect and contain the stock.”