Cartron Point Shellfish Ltd. in New Quay have been shortlisted for an ‘Innovation in Aquaculture Award’ in the inaugural BIM National Seafood Awards.
BIM is hosting the inaugural Awards to celebrate Ireland’s €1 billion Seafood Sector which employs 11,000 people across the island. The shortlist features 38 finalists from across the seafood industry in the fishing, fish farming, seafood processing and retail sectors. The finalists have been selected for their outstanding contributions in the areas of Skills, Sustainability, Innovation and Competitiveness and the overall winners in each category will be revealed by at a Gala Awards ceremony in the Clayton Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin on the 17th November 2016.
Cartron Point Shellfish is the only Clare company shortlisted in the Awards. Increasingly the market demand is for triploid (naturally sterile) oysters rather than diploid (ones that go ‘milky’ when they spawn) oysters as they are marketable all year round.
It set out to be the first producer of disease free sterile gigas oyster seed in Ireland. The company undertook a complex, multi-step alternative method of production of sterile seed in order to produce batches of natural triploid, disease free oysters for the industry.
Through the success of the programme it has been possible for the past two seasons for CPS and every other Irish shellfish hatchery to produce and sell batches of natural triploid oyster seed using the resulting tetraploid male gametes. The application of the innovation has moved Irish shellfish hatcheries from a precarious existential position to one of commercial viability.
CPS is run by Director Iarfhlaith Connellan and employs three full-time and two part-time staff.