For the past three years, 29-year-old Harry Hamlin-Wright from Perth has being working as a company veterinarian for Dawnfresh Farms, a role that takes him to the organisation’s seven Rainbow Trout farms located across Scotland and Northern Ireland.
He began his journey doing a veterinary degree at Nottingham University, where he got the opportunity to explore fish health management through short work placements. Once he decided to pursue a career in aquaculture, Harry completed an MSc in Aquatic Veterinary Medicine at the Institute of Aquaculture in Stirling, before joining Dawnfresh Farming’s graduate programme.
Harry said: “I started to think seriously about careers during my final two years at Nottingham. The initial plan was to go into small animal practice because I like exotic medicine. I’m also interested in population health management, so when I got the chance to join a work placement programme on a fish farm in Shetland, I jumped at the chance. Since then I’ve never looked back.”
Shortly after completing the Dawnfresh graduate programme, Harry was offered the position of company veterinarian, and so is responsible for areas like diagnosing and managing fish health problems, recording and analysing data, as well as providing training and vet support for site workers.
Aquaculture veterinarians have a challenging and varied role, according to Harry. He continued: “Each day is different and is largely determined by what’s happening on site and the time of year. We have seven farms across the mainland, as well as a hatchery and on-growing site in Northern Ireland, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. In the summer, I travel around Scotland visiting the sites. Everything tends to slow down during winter, but there’s always something to do. Key to my role is building good relationships with site managers, so we can make positive changes and improvements together.”
Harry has a particular interest in sustainable food production, a challenge which is common to water and land based industries. Harry explains: “As our population grows and we face growing environmental pressures, producing food in a responsible and sustainable way is becoming increasingly important. At Dawnfresh, we’ve developed an effective feeding and health management programme which improves production and limits our environmental footprint.
Working as an aquaculture veterinarian demands a broad range of skills, from tackling challenging fish health issues to using new technology. But being a good communicator is also very important, as Harry explains. “You need to know how to develop good relationships with people so you can communicate effectively with each other. We often rely on site managers to provide us with information so we can tackle basic fish health issues remotely. There are only two vets, so we can’t be everywhere all of the time. We also need to train and empower site managers to do basic veterinary tasks, such as identifying health problems or administering treatments.”
So what does the future hold for Harry?
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to become company veterinarian so early, so I’m thoroughly enjoying my current role. It’s both challenging and rewarding and there is always something new to learn. I hope to keep training through Dawnfresh and see where that takes me. It’s been a great learning experience. I’d recommend it anyone considering a career in aquaculture. Combining theory with hands-on practical experience is so important, and will put you in good stead for the future.”