News / In brief for 1 September 2010
Seatbelts
POLICE in Shetland will be extra vigilant on Shetland’s roads on Wednesday as they carry out a second day of action on the wearing of seatbelts.
The local force stopped two people not wearing seatbelts when they carried out a similar operation two weeks ago.
Child protection
PEOPLE in Shetland, especially those working in the field of child protection, are being reminded to speak up before the national consultation on improving procedures to protect children ends on 17 September.
Draft child protection guidance has been drawn up to help social workers, the police, NHS staff and other practitioners improve the way vulnerable children are looked after, covering new areas such as online safety and parental substance abuse.
The draft new guidance can be accessed at http://sh45inta/Publications/2010/05/27095252/0
Major oil strike
ENCORE Oil is expected to announce another major discovery in the North Sea, two months after revealing the biggest find east of Shetland in the past decade.
After discovering the 300 million barrel Catcher field in June, the company is epxcted to say the Cladhan field north east of Shetland contains a further 100 million to 200 millions barrels.
Meanwhile the semi submersible drilling rig Borgsten Dolphin has started drilling in 200 metres of water on Hurricane Exploration’s Whirlwind field west of Shetland. The work is expected to take 60 days and cost £18 million.
GM salmon
THE US Food and Drug Administration has begin a 60 day consultation on whether to allow genetically modified salmon to be sold for human consumption.
If the government approves, salmon would become the first genetically modified animal to be bred for the dinner table.
A Boston company AquaBounty Technologies has spent 15 years engineering the GM fish to grow at twice the speed to cut costs and increase production for fish farmers, by combining genetic material from Chinook salmon and ocean pout.
The proposal has been opposed by the International Salmon Farmers’ Association, concerned about consumer reaction and the label “frankenfish”.
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