Local MSP visits Girlsta hatchery
On Friday 27th of November Grieg Seafood Shetland were very happy to welcome the MSP for Shetland, Beatrice Wishart, for a tour of our hatchery facility at Girlsta. Beatrice was accompanied by hatchery manager Jon Walden and communications officer Andrew Fry.
Salmon farming is a major economic asset to Shetland’s economy and its only natural that our politicians are curious to find out more about what we do here. Beatrice was shown how we grow our eggs to smolt, ready for sea transfer. We explained how we maintain high standards of fish health using a variety of methods from water filtration to vaccine programmes.
I found it extremely interesting and it’s given me a greater insight into the process.
Beatrice was especially interested in finding out more about the opportunities we offer for young professionals and the educational opportunities the facility could offer to locals. We’ve taken Beatrice’s comments on board, and when the covid-19 pandemic eases we would love to be able to get high school biology students out to visit the hatchery to see the real-world application of their studies and meet some of our scientists at work.
After the tour, Beatrice and Andrew spoke over coffee about some of the sector’s challenges and the new innovations and strategies which are being used to meet and overcome them. They spoke about the ambitious new sustainability charter that was recently launched by the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation, of which Grieg Seafood is a member.
We would like to thank Beatrice for visiting, we hope to see you again in the future. We are always happy to facilitate public visits, if you would like to arrange a visit to one of our sites, then you can do so by contacting andrew.fry@griegseafood.com