A PIONEERING Highland marine research laboratory has been forced to close, putting 14 jobs in jeopardy, it was revealed today.

News that the SAMS Ardtoe facility was shutting down broke at the Aquaculture Today 2005 conference in Edinburgh.

In a statement released at the event, the directors of SAMS Ardtoe said they had no option but to shut down the facility because the financial resources available were “insufficient” to underpin their core activities through to 2008.

Owned by the Sea Fish Industry Authority up to 17 months ago, the Ardtoe site is the original location of aquaculture research in Scotland and is a pioneer in whitefish husbandry techniques.

At the UK's premier aquaculture event, organised by Fish Farmer magazine, the Ardtoe directors said that while they are are “in negotiation” with SAMS Ardtoe staff at the site on Ardnamurchan, redundancies were inevitable.

Dr Kenny Black, the director of research at SAMS Ardtoe, said he was bitterly disappointed at the news.

And he said the decision by the Scottish Executive not to support the facility, a move which had led directly to the closure, was both “short-sighted and shameful”.

Mr Black, a speaker at yesterday’s conference, said earlier: “A liquidator will be appointed today or possibly tomorrow.

“We are obviously exploring any other avenues which may be available for someone to take over the site and this conference is a good opportunity to do that.

“In the meantime,we would want to make sure that the fish stocks will be kept in good order as we are obliged to do.

“We need to be making as much effort as we can to find an alternative use for the site.”

The best outcome would be to be able to pass the site on to another fisheries research organisation.

As to the Ardtoe staff, he said it would be up to the liquidator to decide what happened next.

“I anticipate if they are not made redundant now they will be eventually.”

But if there was any possibility of a relocation elsewhere they would try to achieve this.

He underlined that the Dunstaffnage, Oban,SAMS operation itself was not affected by the development.

As to the reasons why Ardtoe had hit crisis point, he said :

“A research facility requires strategic funding and it is never going to be able to cover its cost by research or commercial income.”

They had been receiving support from a number of bodies including Highland Council,the Sea Fish Industry Authority, HIE and the Natural Environment Research Council.

But they had a Scottish Executive review over the last few months and the Executive had said it could not be “persuaded “to put in money. As a result other funders had followed suit and Ardtoe had collapsed.

He added:“I am devastated by this and I am incredibly impressed by the dignity the Ardtoe staff have shown throughout this process.”

But SAMS, the Scottish Association of Marine Sciences, was still very much in business, he underlined. Later a spokesman for the Scottish Executive said “The decision by Seafish to transfer the facility to SAMS in 2003 reflected the view that the Unit did not have a commercial future."

They recognised the work done by the Ardtoe Board to build a business case based on a scientific future for the Ardtoe site.”An independent review conducted by DTZ Pieda has highlighted severe short to medium-term funding difficulties, with no guarantee that the facility can become viable in the long-term.”

Efforts to find alternative funding providers and/or commercial opportunities to close the funding gap have not been successful The Executive is committed to further developing marine science research.”

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