Scotland’s biggest barge for biggest farm

THE largest feed barge in Scotland has been delivered to Marine Harvest’s Carradale site, the company’s – and Scotland’s – biggest seawater farm.
The Akva wavemaster AC 650 Panorama is fitted with many smart technology features, including the Akvaconnect 8 line feeding system.
The barge, which is 35m long and 12m wide and can hold 650 tonnes of feed, will replace the site’s current one, which has a capacity of 400 tonnes, the Campbeltown Courier’s Hannah O’Hanlon reported.
Named Eilean Grianaian after a small island near the Carradale site, the barge cost more than £2 million and has 12 feed silos and eight feed lines, with a capacity for 10.
Marine Harvest invited children from Carradale Primary School on board the barge in Campbeltown, before it was towed to its new home in the Kilbrannan Sound.
Area manager Duane Coetzer, Carradale site managers Warren Harvey and Stuart Witts, the managing director’s PA and communications assistant Jayne MacKay, and human resources advisor Sarah Ralston welcomed the pupils on to the vessel.
The 18 youngsters, their teachers and classroom assistants were fitted with life-jackets and given a guided tour around the outside.
They were shown the silos and feed selectors and were then taken to the bridge, where Jayne MacKay gave a talk on salmon farming and answered the children’s questions.
Stuart Witts said: ‘The Carradale farm is the biggest in Scotland and has a limit of 5,000 tonnes of fish. The current feed barge became a limiting factor as it didn’t allow us to reach peak capacity.’
Duane Coetzer and Warren Harvey visited the new barge while it was being built in Tallinn, Estonia, before it was tugged 1,450 miles in 11 days by Danish based Hanstholm Towing Company, arriving in Campbeltown on May 29.
Harvey said: ‘It’s very exciting to be able to take the farm from strength to strength, the new barge will make a huge difference for feeding because we will be able to hold much more food.’
Picture: Marine Harvest\’s Jayne MacKay talks to Carradale Primary School pupils aboard the new Akva feed barge (Picture: Hannah O\’Hanlon)