A WEST of Scotland seafood company that supplied top-end chefs with hand-dived scallops has ceased trading.

The Ethical Shellfish Company, which was founded by Guy Grieve and his then wife Juliet Knight in 2010, delivered scallops to leading chefs throughout the UK.

More recently the pandemic led it to make significant changes, with the company noting on its website that it had been forced to sell its boat, Invictus, to keep going. It continued to source scallops from dive-fishing boats on the west coast, and diversified into direct sales to “home cooks” during period of lockdowns, while also continuing to supply restaurants.

However, Mr Grieve announced on social media that Ethical Shellfish is “coming to an end”.

The Herald:

Mr Grieve’s tweet continued: “The family farm is closing down. God knows we tried. Mother Atlantic kept us going for years. My sons characters were defined by the experience as was mine & that of my beloved former wife Juliet. Many lives to lead before we die. #Scotland”.

In a separate tweet, Mr Grieve alluded to the dive sector having been “severely weakened by Draconian legislation driven by mobile sector lobbyists”, adding: “HSE have made it simply impossible to dive fish as we used to.”

“Added to this #MPAs (marine protected areas) mean nothing. It’s all about bulk produce inshore and not about the environment that feeds us.”

Responding to Mr Grieve’s tweet about the closure of The Ethical Shellfish Company, Dougie Vipond, who presents television show The Great Good Guys with chef Nick Nairn, said on the social media site: “Ah Guy, I’m so sorry to read this. You folks worked so hard to produce an extraordinary product while protecting the seabed for the next generations. Gutted that you are no longer able to do this.”