About the Company

Established in 1972 by Stuart Cannon, a visionary farmer's son from Lincolnshire seeking adventure, Kames Fish Farming is Scotland's oldest family-run fish farm.

Cannon's groundbreaking decision to introduce fish into freshwater lochs and seawater sites along the Inner Hebridean West Coast revolutionised the aquaculture industry. Today, Kames continues to uphold its legacy of forward-thinking husbandry and innovation.

Their unwavering commitment to high welfare standards and sustainable farming practices has earned them accolades such as Best Aquaculture Company at the 2022 UK Aquaculture Awards and Best Animal Welfare in 2023. Through their unique breeding programme, they maintain complete control over the quality of their fish, ensuring excellence from egg to plate.

As Scotland's trailblazing family fish farm, Kames has led the way in aquaculture innovation for decades. Their core values of quality, sustainability, and community underscore every aspect of their work.

KTP Aim

The KTP project with the School of Health and Life Sciences and Kames Fish Farming aimed to improve internal diagnostic tools and expertise, focusing on assessing and enhancing fish health to aid business growth.

Working with Kames Fish Farming on this KTP project was a uniquely rewarding experience. As an academic you don’t always get to see the direct benefits that our research can have, particularly in an industry setting. However, through this KTP we have worked in close collaboration with Kames to address and overcome some challenges faced by the business, making a direct impact on company productivity and profitability. This is truly research with impact.

Professor Brian Quinn, University of the West of Scotland

 

KTP Associate

Andre Van was the KTP Associate on this project and was retained at the company as a Fish Health Manager.

 

Key Outcomes

  • Successfully set up a dedicated fish health department for comprehensive monitoring and diagnostics
  • Applied clinical chemistry techniques to detect early-stage health issues, improving intervention and reducing production challenges such as fish mortality
  • Created and operationalised an in-house brood stock programme to ensure sustainable future production
  • Used innovative technology and proactive fish health strategies to identify fish strains resilient to environmental stress
  • Achieved enhanced sea survival rates and increased profitability, attributed to the success of the in-house brood stock programme and resilient fish strains
  • Projected sales growth over the next three years is exceeding £2,000,000
  • 4 new employees hired
  • £25,000 total investment in plant and machinery

 

Notable Achievements

  • Fish health management programme using non-lethal health monitoring
  • Increased yield, product quality and animal welfare
  • Dr Andre Van was retained as Fish Health Manager
  • This KTP was the catalyst for UWS spin-out company, WellFish Tech

 

This KTP project has very clearly demonstrated the power of collaboration between business and a respected academic partner, allowing the rapid and seamless introduction of new technologies and ground-breaking R&D into a commercial operation with tangible impacts.

Neil Manchester, Managing Director, Kames Fish Farming

Last updated: 08/08/2024