Scottish Marine Aquaculture Awards 2009

The produce of Scottish marine aquaculture – salmon, marine finfish species and shellfish farming – are some of the world’s finest foods.

Yet Scottish aquaculture farmers don’t always get the recognition they deserve for the excellent standards of husbandry, welfare and environmental sustainability used in producing such first-rate food that’s both healthy and affordable.

In 2006 The Crown Estate inaugurated an awards scheme to highlight and reward innovation and best practice in the Scottish salmon farming industry. Such was the success of the scheme, it was repeated in 2007 and, come 2008, expanded into the Marine Aquaculture Awards.

The awards ceremony, held on 18 June 2009 at Prestonfield Hotel in Edinburgh, attracted businesses from as far afield as Shetland and Stranraer. Minister for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham gave the keynote speech.

The Crown Estate Scottish Marine Aquaculture Awards 2009 recognised both best practice and innovation across the board in an industry which includes the producers, processors and suppliers.

And the winners were...

• Shetland-based Blueshell Mussels Ltd scored a hat-trick, winning Best Shellfish Farm, Best Marine Aquaculture Company and the Innovation award.
• Marine Harvest Scotland was also among the winners, receiving the Business Development Award as well as Ambassador of the Year for their Business Development Manager Steve Bracken.
• Scottish Sea Farms’ Steven Jamieson scooped the prize for Farm Manager of the Year and the company also won Best Finfish Farm.
• Other awards went to Inverness and Western Isles-based Gael Force Marine for Aquaculture Supplier of the Year, Lighthouse Caledonia for Stewardship and Sainsbury’s Store Ltd for Aquaculture Processor of the Year.

The judges were Martin Gill, Managing Director of Food Certification Scotland; Professor David Gray, Director of NAFC Marine Centre; Malcolm Dickson, Editor of Fish Farmer; Dr Kenny Black, Head of Ecology at The Scottish Association for Marine Science and Alex Adrian, The Crown Estate.