Loch Nevis Farms ASC certification

A key part of our mainland marine farming estate for over 20 years now, our three Loch Nevis farms – referred to within the company as Loch Nevis A, B and C – are situated within the Knoydart National Scenic Area; a designation granted in 2010 in recognition of the area’s exceptional mountain scenery and seascapes.

Whilst the three neighbouring farms are only a short boat trip away from one another, each is manned by its own dedicated Farm Manager and farm team, creating and supporting several skilled jobs in the surrounding areas.

In December 2020, our Loch Nevis C farm made a little bit of company history becoming the first of our marine farms to harvest fish that had been reared at our new £58M Barcaldine Hatchery.

Now, Loch Nevis A, B and C are looking to achieve another important company milestone by following our Summer Isles farms in securing coveted ASC certification.

Transparent reporting

In addition to being independently audited against hundreds of different criteria, each farm is also required to uphold a high level of transparency.

In the case of salmon farms, this includes providing an overview of its:

Integrated pest management approach
Average sea lice levels per fish
Wildlife interactions
Estimated unexplained losses or gains at end of crop.

All of which you will find below for our three Loch Nevis farms.

Integrated pest management approach

As with our other farms, our three-strong Loch Nevis estate adopts an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to monitoring and controlling sea lice levels.

This involves giving careful consideration to all available pest control techniques, then integrating the measures most likely to:

Discourage the development of pest populations
Minimise use of medicinal interventions in order to protect public and environmental health.

Average sea lice levels per fish

Below are details of the current lice levels at our Loch Nevis farm, based on the average number of adult female Lepeophtheirus salmonis per fish:

Farm: Nevis A
Calendar week: 31
Week beginning: 01/08
Average: 0.63

Farm: Nevis B
Calendar week: 31
Week beginning: 01/08
Average: No count – treating

Farm: Nevis C
Calendar week: 31
Week beginning: 01/08
Average: 3.23

Wildlife interactions

Just as we have a responsibility to protect our own livestock, so too we have a duty of care to protect local wildlife from marine life from harm or entrapment.

Below are details of any wildlife interactions at our Loch Nevis farms during this current crop:

Birds
Nevis A: 0
Nevis B: 0
Nevis C: 0

Mammals
Nevis A: 0
Nevis B: 0
Nevis C: 0

Escaped fish
Nevis A: 0
Nevis B: 0
Nevis C: 0

Estimated unexplained losses or gains

Unexplained losses or gains refers to any variation in the estimated number of fish put into a marine farm for on-growing and the total number of fish harvested out. As such, these figures are reported at the end of the current crop.