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The port of Newlyn could find itself at the leading edge of development
if an innovative new scheme to turn the fishing industry's unwanted leftovers
into eco-friendly fertiliser, succeeds.
Disposing of fish waste - skin, bones, heads and shells - is expensive,
but the new project, a unique fish waste treatment plant which will be
tested at Newlyn in the autumn, could not only cut costs but make money
as well.
The £40,000 project, funded by Objective 1 and supported by the
Newlyn Fish Industry Forum, is due to begin in October and will run, as
a pilot scheme, for eight weeks.
On the outside, it will look like a water tank on the end of the Mary
Williams Pier, but inside, a money-making transformation will be taking
place, thanks to the tiny shrimp-like creature which will be getting to
work on fish waste.
Full size, the waste tank will be about the size of the storage part
of a container lorry with three compartments, but the trial version will
be smaller. In one compartment will be the skin, gut, bones of the fish,
in another scallop shells and in a third, crab shells.
Sea water from the harbour will be fed into the tank as well as the 'gramus'
shrimps which will chew the waste, and as they do, the by-products would
be created - organic fertiliser, pigments for industry and a shell product
high in calcium.
Once the gramus have fattened themselves up by eating all the waste,
they will be caught, dried and sold as fish food, which will bring in
even more revenue.
Welcoming the project, Tony Woodhams, Newlyn Fisheries project officer
said: "We want to make every last penny out of the fish and do it
in an environmentally friendly way. This is another way of squeezing added
value out of the product.
"Part of the regeneration strategy for Newlyn is to build a seafood
park at the top of the town which will obviously produce more waste than
we do now. If this process works, it will be invaluable for the seafood
park."
He added: "I am very optimistic about the whole strategy for the
regeneration of Newlyn. Putting value on the product fish is an essential
part of it and if we can add value to the waste part of the fish, that's
even better."
At the present time, 98 per cent of the fish landed at Newlyn is gutted
and then sold direct to European buyers without being processed at all.
Any waste produced from the rest is taken to landfill sites, or, from
oily fish, it is frozen and taken to a plant at Grimsby where it is broken
down and turned into fish food. Both these processes cost around £100
per tonne of fish waste and are felt by some to be damaging to the environment
Newlyn fish merchant, exporter and boat owner, Robin Turner, who will
be directly affected by the success of the new scheme said: "In an
ideal world we will make money out of this process, although it will also
cost money to use. But if we can reduce the price of disposal by a half
or so, then that's excellent.
"Our vision in Newlyn is to be completely right about disposing
of fish by-products and from this experiment there will be very little
end waste. We want to be as economic and as environmentally friendly as
possible."
Once operational the scheme will be monitored by the man who developed
it, Andy Fitzgerald of Aquatic Water Services of St Columb.
article copyright © THE CORNISHMAN
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