Production and implementation of farmed wrasse in the Scottish Salmon industry

The aim of this project is to develop the technology to breed and grow commercially viable numbers of wrasse in tanks and deploy these successfully and sustainably in Atlantic salmon farms in Scotland. Wrasse are cleaner fish that have been shown to help control sealice populations in farmed Scottish Salmon, significantly reducing the reliance on and cost of antiparasitic medication. These medicines have limitations in the long term unless used within a suite of other measures as part of the integrated pest management strategy that is needed to sustain and expand the industry. This project will remove the need to catch wild wrasse, providing high quality farmed wrasse to the industry.