Tim Wiese asks Scottish salmon farmers for their views
Individuals working within the Scottish salmon farming industry are being asked to give their views on how on-farm salmon measures should best be improved for the benefit of both salmon welfare and farm production. This industry-wide survey is part of a PhD project funded by Stirling & Edinburgh Universities and SRUC. The results from this survey, organised by first-year PhD student Tim Wiese, will allow for future research to consider both practicality and effectiveness concerns when 

developing on-farm welfare measures.

Tim explains the reason behind doing this survey is that “I have previously worked on two fish farms and I understand that, if I want my future research to have any real-life impact, my experiments have to consider the busy routines and multiple responsibilities that people working with farmed salmon already have. The goal of this survey is to help ensure that both salmon AND farm productivity benefit hand-in-hand from my research.”

“Certain welfare measures often act as effective early-warning signs for problems that can occur on-site. If such indicators are further improved, they could play an important role in preventing issues from occurring in the first place. This would help drive salmon welfare and farm production.”

“I am looking to gather as many participants as 

possible for this survey, and anyone who has had experience within the salmon farming industry is welcome to take part.”

Ed Ley-Wilson, Aquascot’s Head of Aquaculture, is also supporting this project “Tim’s work will certainly help the industry to discover where we are now with measuring salmon welfare, and what we need to do to take salmon welfare to the next level.”