Orkney leaping on £3m salmon farm investment

Scottish Sea Farms is investing £3 million in a new salmon farm in a move that will create jobs in Orkney.

The farm will bring the companys Orkney estate to eight. Picture: Craig Stephen

The firm has been granted approval for a farm off Lober Rock close to St Margaret’s Hope in Scapa Flow.

The new facility, which is the culmination of several years of research and planning into identifying the best farming locations in Orkney waters, has consent to grow 1,274 tonnes of salmon and is expected to go live in 2019.

As well as leading to the creation of six local jobs, the farm has the potential to indirectly create a further 30 within the industry.

Richard Darbyshire, Scottish Sea Farms’ regional production manager for Orkney, said: “For the remote communities in which we live and work, the new farm will bring skilled jobs and training, additional business for local suppliers, and a boost to local economies in terms of increased disposable income.”

The farm will bring the company’s Orkney estate to eight.