Toyness Farm ASC certification | Scottish Sea Farms

One of five farms situated in the historic natural harbour of Scapa Flow, you’ll find Westerbister situated to the east, framed by the dramatic seascapes and lush farmland of mainland Orkney to the north, Burray and South Ronaldsay to the south-east, South Walls and Flotta to the south and Hoy to the west.

First stocked in 2016, Westerbister is now raising its fourth generation of fish – each one overseen by the same Farm Manager throughout.

Transparent reporting

As part of the ASC certification process, farms are required to maintain 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
Weighted number of medicinal treatments at end of crop.

You’ll find details on each of these below for our Westerbister farm.

Integrated pest management approach

To monitor and control sea lice levels, Scottish Sea Farms provides an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. 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 Westerbister farm, based on the average number of adult female Lepeophtheirus salmonis per fish:

Farm: Westerbister
Calendar week: 48
Week beginning: 27/11
Average: No count – harvesting

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 Westerbister during this current crop:

Birds: 0
Mammals: 0
Escaped fish: 0

Estimated unexplained losses

Unexplained losses 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.