Over the coming three years, Jessica Di Toro will be studying lumpfish welfare and nutrition in the Faroe Islands. It is a PhD project, arranged by P/F Fiskaaling and the University of Stirling, Scotland.
There was considerable interest for the position when the PhD was announced earlier this year. The successful candidate is Jessica Di Toro from Italy. She has a degree from the University of Perugia, and she has experience with nutritional composition research in relation to fish and other ocean based feed. Jessica is particularly interested in improving nutritional content in feed in order to improve fish welfare and the quality of fish as a food source.
“I am very excited to begin work on this project, and to put my knowledge into practice. I am looking forward to working with the people at Fiskaaling, who have already been very good and generous to me," says Jessica Di Toro.
The PhD project is financed by Fiskaaling as well as by Bakkafrost, Havsbrún, AkerBiomarine and the University of Stirling.
Coordinating Meeting
The project’s coordinating kick-off meeting was held at Fiskaaling headquarters. The following were present at the meeting: Sonia Rey Planellas and Monica Betancor from the University of Stirling, Tibiábin Benítez and Kjetil Ribe from AkerBiomarine, Rói Christiansen from Bakkafrost, Hans Jákup Jacobsen from Havsbrún, Ása Johannesen from Fiskaaling and Jessica Di Toro.
“The aim of this project is to establish the nutritional requirements of lumpfish, in order to provide good feed. The project is very exciting, and the project partners are very well qualified, so I expect the results to be ground-breaking. Jessica has just the right background to engage with this particular project, so I am pleased and I am looking forward to working with her.” says Ása Johannesen, representative from Fiskaaling.
Jessica will be working at Fiskaaling for six weeks before returning to the University of Stirling for some time. Then, she will be commuting somewhat between the Faroe Islands and Scotland in while working with the project.
Ása Johannesen and Jessica Di Toro.
