The northwest coast of
Sutherland is at the very tip of Britain's mainland.
It's a long, long way
from anywhere. Here nature rules and the impact of people is minimal.
The winds and tides sweep
down from the Northern Atlantic to provide a self-regenerating and clean environment
- perfect conditions for rearing salmon of exceptional quality.
The Loch Duart rearing
operations are based at Scourie - a centre of Scottish salmon production for
hundreds of years, where salmon rearing is now the prime occupation and skills
are handed down from generation to generation.
Turn off the coast road
just south of Scourie and Badcall Bay opens up in front of you - magnificent,
unspoilt Scottish scenery with the Badcall Salmon House resting at the water's
edge.
Built in the 19th Century,
Badcall Salmon House is the headquarters of Loch Duart Ltd and the nerve centre
of our operation. You can feel the history here....
Our working environment - the Northwest Highlands Geopark
Sutherland is the most sparsely populated corner of Europe. It is an area of incredible natural beauty where eagles and peregrines soar.
The rocks on our seashore are over 3,000 million years old - an incredible legacy of an extraordinary geological past.
The Northwest Geopark has beautiful scenery, strong communities and world-class geology. It is Scotland's first - one of 23 partners in the European Geopark Network, all endorsed by UNESCO.
"It is of great satisfaction to our company that the area that we farm falls into the North West Geopark, which has just been designated. Loch Duart and all the other businesses in the area understand the duty that is placed upon them to protect this area and maintain it to the high standard that it is in now. We understand the commitment involved in living and working in one of the last virtually untouched areas of the world."
For more information visit www.northwest-highlands-geopark.org.uk.
Protecting our Environment
We are taking further steps to protect our pristine environment with a pioneering integrated aquaculture initiative which involves growing sea urchins and seaweed alongside our Freedom Food salmon.
Sea urchins live comfortably alongside our fish, feeding on leftover fish food and cleaning algae off the sides of the pens. The variety of sea urchin being grown by Loch Duart is a native species called Paracentrotus lividus and is a much-prized delicacy.
Seaweed feeds on the nutrients that even the most sustainable salmon farming may add to sea lochs. The glory of integrated aquaculture is 'nutrient balancing', which is missing from most monoculture. Two types of indigenous seaweed are being grown at Loch Duart - Palmaria palmate (Dulse), often described as 'a vegetarian oyster' and Laminaria saccharina (Sugar Kelp). Both varieties are a delicious source of important minerals.
'Balancing' means removing at least as much nitrogen and phosphates as are put in by the salmon farm. In this way, we will be able to demonstrate that the farm has a neutral or even positive environmental impact. One of the benefits of the seaweed growth is carbon sequestration.
The Marine Conservation Society
Loch Duart supports the work of the MCS. We believe that, whilst we can work to minimise our impact on the marine environment, we need an organisation to look after its best interests. We understand that this belief will have an impact on our business and we commit to giving our best efforts to achieving the goals set by the MCS.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is the UK charity dedicated to caring for our seas, shores and wildlife.
MCS campaigns for clean seas and beaches, sustainable fisheries, protection of marine life and habitats, and the sensitive use of our marine resources for future generations.
Through education, community involvement and collaboration, MCS raises awareness of the many threats that face our seas and promotes individual, industry and government action to protect the marine environment.
Loch Duart believes that we must have a pragmatic organisation protecting the marine environment. We believe that the MCS meets the criteria. The new MCS Principles and Guidelines (link) have been published and we endorse them. Whilst it may not be possible for us to meet all of the criteria, we regard this publication as the way forward for aquaculture. Be assured that we will be working hard to move towards these goals.
Dawn Purchase, Mariculture Officer at the MCS, spent practical working time at Loch Duart as part of the preparation of these guidelines. At present, we cannot claim total compliance but believe this to be a practical future possibility.
If you are concerned about overfishing, pollution and threats to wildlife and habitats, visit www.mcsuk.org.
A few images of the wonderful environment we are all working to protect.
