Scottish fish farm production survey 2016

1. Rainbow Trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Production survey information was collected from all 24 companies actively involved in rainbow trout production, farming 44 active sites. This figure represents the entire industry operating in Scotland.

Production

Year	Tonnes	Year	Tonnes
2002	6,659	2010	5,139
2003	7,085	2011	4,619
2004	6,352	2012	5,670
2005	6,989	2013	5,611
2006	7,492	2014	5,882
2007	7,414	2015	8,588
2008	7,670	2016	8,096
2009	6,766	2017	7,208*

* Industry estimate based on stocks currently being on-grown.

Production decreased in 2016 by 492 tonnes, a decrease of 6%, to 8,096 tonnes. Production remained high as the 2016 total is the second highest level of rainbow trout production ever recorded in Scotland.

Year	<450 g	450-900 g	>900 g	Total
	<1 lb	1-2 lbs	>2 lbs	Tonnes
2006	2,182	1,810	2,636	6,628
2007	2,499	1,663	2,407	6,569
2008	2,375	1,950	2,487	6,812
2009	2,232	1,143	2,620	5,995
2010	2,125	727	1,606	4,458
2011	1,421	1,004	1,433	3,858
2012	1,195	1,655	2,209	5,059
2013	1,908	825	2,268	5,001
2014	2,334	290	2,704	5,328
2015	2,299	258	5,476	8,033
2016	2,393	234	4,735	7,437

Production for the table in 2016 was 7,437 tonnes, a decrease of 596 tonnes (7%) on the 2015 total, and accounted for 92% of the total rainbow trout production, a decrease on the proportion to that produced in 2015. Also, an increase in the number of fish in the small size range and a decrease in the number of fish in the medium and large size ranges were highlighted.

Year	<450 g	450-900 g	>900 g	Total
	<1 lb	1-2 lbs	>2 lbs	Tonnes
2006	36	357	471	864
2007	24	413	408	845
2008	27	351	480	858
2009	32	294	444	770
2010	19	201	461	681
2011	8	419	334	761
2012	22	266	323	611
2013	24	221	365	610
2014	28	256	270	554
2015	15	158	382	555
2016	35	183	441	659

In 2016, production for the restocking of angling waters increased to 659 tonnes representing an increase of 104 tonnes (19%) on the 2015 total. This accounted for 8% of total rainbow trout production in 2016. These figures represent the tonnage of fish supplied to angling waters for restocking purposes; they do not account for the catch taken by anglers. The production of small, medium and large sized fish all showed an increase.

Production by Site

Year	Number of sites per production tonnage				Total number of sites
	<1-25	26-100	101-200	>200
2006	16	15	6	13	50
2007	14	15	3	16	48
2008	8	15	7	14	44
2009	10	11	7	11	39
2010	7	13	9	7	36
2011	9	10	6	8	33
2012	10	10	6	8	34
2013	6	11	5	8	30
2014	6	11	5	9	31
2015	4	10	5	11	30
2016	6	10	3	13	32

Production was reported from 32 of the 44 active sites. The number of producers in the size bracket 101-200 tonnes decreased while those in the <1-25 tonnes and >200 tonnes size brackets increased. The number of sites in the 26-100 tonnes bracket remained the same as in 2015. These figures do not include those sites specialising in the production of ova or young fish for on-growing.

Production by Method

Production method	Production grouping (tonnes) in 2016					Total tonnage and (%) by method		Number of sites
	<10	10-25	26-50	51-100	>100	2015	2016	2015	2016
FW cages	1	0	0	0	5	2,433 (28.3%)	2,836 (35.0%)	6	6
FW ponds and raceways	1	1	6	2	5	1,405 (16.4%)	1,420 (17.6%)	14	15
FW tanks and hatcheries	3	0	0	1	0	72 (0.8%)	81 (1.0%)	4	4
SW cages	0	0	0	1	6	4,678 (54.5%)	3,759 (46.4%)	6	7
SW tanks	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	5	1	6	4	16	8,588	8,096	30	32

Freshwater production accounted for 4,337 tonnes (53.6%) and seawater production for the remaining 3,759 tonnes (46.4%). Production from freshwater cages increased whilst there was a decrease in production from seawater cages.

Company and Site Data

Year	No. of companies	No. of sites
2003	37	56
2004	38	62
2005	42	70
2006	36	66
2007	38	70
2008	31	66
2009	27	56
2010	25	51
2011	23	48
2012	25	48
2013	24	46
2014	24	46
2015	24	45
2016	24	44

In 2016 the number of companies authorised by the Scottish Government and actively engaged in rainbow trout production was 24. The number of sites registered and in production was 44.

Staffing and Productivity

Year	Full-time	Part-time	Total	Productivity (tonnes/person)
2003	107	41	148	47.9
2004	115	37	152	41.8
2005	108	35	143	48.9
2006	112	35	147	51.0
2007	111	32	143	51.8
2008	107	34	141	54.4
2009	111	27	138	49.0
2010	98	31	129	39.8
2011	95	23	118	39.1
2012	79	28	107	53.0
2013	89	21	110	51.0
2014	93	20	113	52.1
2015	110	16	126	68.2
2016	100	21	121	66.9

The overall number of staff employed in 2016 decreased by five to 121. The number of full-time staff decreased by 10 while the number of part-time staff increased by five. Productivity, measured as tonnes produced per person, decreased by 1.9% in 2016 with no distinction between full and part-time employees being made for this calculation.

Production by Area

Area	No. of sites	Table production (tonnes)	Restocking production (tonnes)	Mean tonnes per site	Staffing			Productivity (tonnes/person)
					F/T	P/T	Total
North	3	3	30	11.0	2	1	3	11.0
East	13	1,131	332	112.5	38	6	44	33.3
West	15	5,331	40	358.1	43	5	48	111.9
South	13	972	257	94.5	17	9	26	47.3
All	44	7,437	659	184.0	100	21	121	66.9

Productivity was greatest in the West at 358.1 tonnes per site and 111.9 tonnes per person.

Type of Ova Laid Down

Year	All female diploid no. (%)	Triploid no. (%)	Mixed sex diploid no. (%)	Total ova
2005	16,773 (83)	1,729 (8)	1,745 (9)	20,247
2006	22,378 (84)	2,804 (10)	1,626 (6)	26,808
2007	23,630 (83)	2,531 (9)	2,140 (8)	28,301
2008	22,978 (88)	2,526 (9)	725 (3)	26,229
2009	15,469 (87)	2,341 (13)	35 (<1)	17,845
2010	13,352 (89)	1,052 (7)	675 (4)	15,079
2011	12,673 (84)	2,254 (15)	215 (1)	15,142
2012	10,967 (85)	2,005 (15)	7 (<1)	12,979
2013	7,857 (80)	1,955 (20)	77 (<1)	9,889
2014	8,321 (75)	2,710 (25)	9 (<1)	11,040
2015	10,245 (85)	1,800 (15)	76 (<1)	12,121
2016	7,986 (80)	1,943 (20)	5 (<1)	9,934

Source of Ova Laid Down

Year	Ova produced in Great Britain ( GB)			Imported ova			Total
	Own stock	Other stock	Total	Northern hemisphere	Southern hemisphere	Total
2005	281	105	386	16,977	2,884	19,861	20,247
2006	541	2,169	2,710	22,588	1,510	24,098	26,808
2007	936	230	1,166	26,650	485	27,135	28,301
2008	582	487	1,069	25,160	0	25,160	26,229
2009	603	220	823	17,022	0	17,022	17,845
2010	415	50	465	14,614	0	14,614	15,079
2011	215	189	404	14,738	0	14,738	15,142
2012	14	230	244	12,735	0	12,735	12,979
2013	77	537	614	9,275	0	9,275	9,889
2014	9	655	664	10,376	0	10,376	11,040
2015	6	888	894	11,227	0	11,227	12,121
2016	35	349	384	9,550	0	9,550	9,934

In 2016, the total number of eyed ova laid down to hatch decreased by 2.2 million (18%) on the 2015 figure. The proportion of ova from GB broodstock decreased to 3.9% of the total and the rainbow trout industry remained reliant on imported ova. Data on the importation of ova into Scotland are also available from the health certificates and are shown in Table 9a. Any discrepancy between the figures in Tables 8 and 9a is due to data being obtained from two independent sources.

Imports from Official Import Health Certificates

Source	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Denmark	4,070	1,715	5,250	1,950	1,315	2,500	2,330	5,535
Isle of Man	290	1,400	520	300	800	1,000	175	20
N. Ireland	10,090	9,247	7,320	8,332	5,125	4,780	6,535	3,040
Norway	750	200	130	300	175	710	670	500
USA	2,240	2,340	1,580	1,800	2,350	1,700	1,675	750
Totals	17,440	14,902	14,800	12,682	9,765	10,690	11,385	9,845

Month	Denmark	Isle of Man	N. Ireland	Norway	USA
January	0	0	870	250	0
February	5	0	0	0	0
March	1,390	0	0	100	0
April	0	0	180	150	175
May	970	0	0	0	10
June	1,150	0	0	0	205
July	0	0	320	0	205
August	220	0	970	0	0
September	200	0	20	0	155
October	1,200	0	360	0	0
November	0	20	0	0	0
December	400	0	320	0	0
Totals	5,535	20	3,040	500	750

Source	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
N. Ireland	0	<1	72	155	537	674	746	592
Republic of Ireland	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0

Suppliers within the European Union ( EU) accounted for 87.3% of ova imported into Scotland during 2016 with the USA and Norway accounting for 7.6% and 5.1% respectively. To maintain their ability to regulate production throughout the year and produce a constant supply of fish for their markets, producers have to rely upon supplies of out of season ova. In recent years there has been a trend for producers to import part grown rainbow trout into Scotland from outwith GB.

Trade in Fry and Fingerlings

Year	Fry and fingerlings bought			Total number bought	Total number sold
	All female diploid no. (%)	Triploid no. (%)	Mixed sex diploid no. (%)
2005	14,618 (83)	1,532 (9)	1,480 (8)	17,630	16,919
2006	19,731 (89)	1,675 (7)	790 (4)	22,196	20,460
2007	14,830 (89)	1,140 (7)	675 (4)	16,645	23,631
2008	24,298 (95)	1,082 (4)	118 (0.5)	25,498	31,036
2009	21,113 (94)	1,358 (6)	0	22,471	20,597
2010	15,539 (95)	585 (4)	141 (1)	16,265	14,686
2011	16,288 (88.5)	1,970 (10.7)	138 (0.8)	18,396	16,612
2012	12,543 (91)	1,226 (9)	0	13,769	12,088
2013	6,734 (84)	1,239 (16)	0	7,973	6,749
2014	5,911 (81)	1,423 (19)	0	7,334	6,719
2015	6,104 (87)	598 (9)	290 (4)	6,992	6,971
2016	6,452 (85)	1,124 (15)	0	7,577	6,779

The established trade between hatcheries and on-growing farms continued in 2016. Some companies specialised in the production of fry and fingerlings. The total number of fry and fingerlings sold decreased by 2.8% while the number bought increased by 8.4%. The disparity between supply and demand is due to trade with England and Wales.

Use of Vaccines

Year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
No. of sites	37	31	28	28	31	27	26	24	19	21	17	18
No. of fish	30.0	36.4	41.4	29.1	27.5	20.0	20.3	20.4	9.9	10.0	8.3	7.3

Vaccines continued to be used as a preventative treatment against enteric redmouth disease ( ERM), a potentially serious bacterial infection, caused by Yersinia ruckeri. Vaccination is generally carried out as a bath treatment at the fingerling stage, although some vaccines are administered by intra-peritoneal injection. A total of 7.3 million fish were vaccinated on 18 sites.

Organic Production

Of the 44 sites recorded as being active in rainbow trout production in 2016, none were certified as organic.

Escapes

There was one incident involving the loss of 200 fish from a rainbow trout site in 2016.