Fish Farming

As you travel around Mull you will see quite a lot of marine industrial farming. The waters around Mull are of particularly good quality, and the sea temperature tends to be a little higher than on the East coast due to the "North Atlantic Drift". This has encouraged the growth of large fish and shellfish farms. The farm that you see along loch Scridain is for Salmon, and the large floatation areas hold cages for the maturing fish. Fish farming is an important employer on the island and is one ways of encouraging young people to stay in the community. On the other hand it tends to spoil this fantastic view of Ben More. Balances?

One other form of fish farming that you see around Mull, and on Loch Scridain, is shellfish farming. Further towards Bunessan you will see rows of black floats in the water, and buildings on the shore line. This is a huge Mussel farm. Mussels are suspended on ropes, and in turn the ropes are kept afloat by the large, cylindrical floats. The process involves capturing the mussel spat which are suspended in the water amongst the protoplancton after the adult mussels spawn. They are captured by suspending dozens of ropes into the water. The spat naturally sticks and clings to the ropes thinking that they are the shore. The mussels grow on the ropes and mature within about three years. The ropes are periodically cleaned of sea squirts and other fouling and then replaced in the water along with the crop of cleaned mussels. They are held within netting tubes to help them re-establish. The result is very high quality, clean mussels, many of them destined for the tables of France and Spain, not to mention the top restaurants in the UK.
Once again an employer of many young people on Mull, but, once again another spoiler of the view. This balance of employment and environmental impact is a constant debate in relationship to the survival of our communities.