News / New brains for aquaculture industry
The NAFC Marine Centre has this week welcomed two new staff members to fill the posts of Aquaculture Research Scientist and Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Research Associate.
Both positions join the aquaculture research section in the centre’s marine science and technology department and will fulfil specific roles.
Dr Clive Talbot, who started work on 1 June as aquaculture research scientist, is in the process of moving to Shetland from Fort William where he worked for almost three years as a self employed consultant.
The 56 year old has an international reputation, both in academia and the aquaculture industry as an authority on fish biology and fish farming operations, including competence in nutrition, husbandry and environmental issues.
After being awarded his PhD in 1980 by the University of Aberdeen, Dr Talbot worked for 12 years at Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory in Pitlochry before joining Nutreco Aquaculture Research Centre in Stavanger, Norway as senior researcher.
In 2001, he joined the Marine Harvest Technical Centre, also in Stavanger, as technical manager where he worked for six years.
“I see this as a great opportunity to develop teaching and R&D activities for the aquaculture sector. I hope to bring in and manage research projects, as well as developing and teaching sector specific courses.
“It has always been a personal ambition to take my collected experience of academia, and pure industry research, and put something back into industry through working in a higher education institution or government policy/advisory role.
“This post was an ideal opportunity for me to help support the aquaculture industry in general and Shetland in particular. This role also gives me the chance to pass on some of the knowledge and experience I’ve gained over the years to the new generation of students and workers coming into the industry,” he said.
Dr Talbot is joined in the aquaculture development section by 27 year old Noelia Rodriguez as Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) research associate.
Originally from Spain, Noelia worked as a fish monitor and sampler of tuna at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography for three years before moving to Shetland in 2008.
She has since worked as a laboratory technician and benthic trainee taxonomist with Shetland Seafood Quality Control (SSQC) before taking up the new post. She has also been studying towards a degree in biology at the University of Oviedo in Spain.
She said: “Over the next two years I will investigate and develop the practical aspects of the use of Ballan wrasse as cleaner fish for the biological control of sea lice on farmed salmon.
“Sea lice are acknowledged as one of the major concerns industry currently faces in these financially challenging times.
“This applied research project will involve monitoring sea lice abundance on actual commercial salmon housed with ‘cleaner fish’ within a sea-based trials site in Shetland.”
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