Gulf parr for success with live salmon shipments to Dubai

The first successful shipments of live salmon parr fingerlings (Salmo salar) have flown from Scotland to Dubai.
FloatPac, owners of FishPac live seafood transportation systems, said that process involved a total of 38,500 fish transported in 42 bin (pictured below) movements over a five month period on Emirates passenger aircraft under IATA special provision A302.
The journey included a five-hour road journey to Glasgow airport, a 7.5 hour flight to Dubai and customs clearance – culminating in an average transit period of between 20-26 hours. 
“The ability to ship both parr and smolt is significant,” said FloatPac chief Gavin Hodgins. “As land-based salmon Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) farming becomes more popular, the need for sound transportation of live salmon at all life cycles is becoming increasingly important.
“Thanks to our airfreight oxygen delivery system, which we are continually developing to meet the needs of a range of species, we’ve just completed the stocking of a large recirculation aquaculture farm in Dubai with fingerlings.
“It means that, thanks to FishPac, locally supplied, live and fresh chilled salmon will be available in the UAE market from late 2018. There is no better way to ship live aquatic animals.”
FloatPac’s marine biologist, Peter Rankin, said: “The key objective of the transport was to deliver fish in the best possible condition, without compromising their future growth potential.”
“Following successful pre-shipment trials with 40g fish in Scotland, shipments were ultimately undertaken at a density of around 55kg per cubic metre per bin.”
Given FloatPac’s recently announced agency deal for Europe and the UK with Norwegian company Lipfish, the team said that this latest project is an important “next step” in the firm’s global growth strategy. 

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