SALMON business Scottish Sea Farms is to increase the amount of salmon it farms in the Orkney Islands with the investment of £3 million in a new site in Scapa Flow.

The farm, which will be situated at Lober Rock and is expected to go live next year, will be the company’s eighth in Orkney.

Collectively, the eight will have the capacity to grow 10,000 tonnes of salmon each year.

Scottish Sea Farms regional production manager Richard Darbyshire said the announcement was “hugely positive news”, with the company planning to create six new jobs at the new site.

“For the remote communities in which we live and work, the new farm will bring skilled jobs and training, additional business for local suppliers, and a boost to local economies in terms of increased disposable income,” he said.

Scottish Sea Farms first became active in Orkney just over a decade ago, when it acquired five farms from Orkney Sea Farms.

It expanded its estate in 2015, when it invested £2.6m in the launch of a 1,909-tonne site at Wyre, and in 2016 added a 1,791-tonne farm at Westerbister. The Lober Rock site has permission to grow just over 1,200 tonnes of salmon each year.

While salmon farms have recently been accused of passing sea lice to wild salmon, Mr Darbyshire said the company has only had one case of sea lice during its 10 years in Orkney.