The Marine Environmental Research Laboratory is a purpose built, aquaculture research facility located at Machrihanish in Kintyre on the west coast of Scotland.
The Laboratory was built in 1991, and expanded in 1998. In 2008 it took over operation of the facilities of Machrihanish Marine Farm Ltd, the UK's largest commercial cod hatchery, to provide one of the largest and best equipped marine aquaculture research facilities in Europe. The facility provides contract research services and hire of facilities to industry and academic institutions and supports research and teaching at the Institute of Aquaculture.
Facilities at MERL include
- more than 200 holding tanks and raceways purpose built for research with Atlantic salmon and marine species.
- flow through and state of the art recirculation systems
. - seawater supply more than 20 000 litres per minute.
- replicate experimental tank systems
- tank sizes ranging from 80L to more than 50 m3 per tank
- high level filtration and sanitation of incoming and outgoing water.
- water temperature and light control
- dedicated isolation suite for working with pathogens in a biosecure environment
- pathogen cultures including a stock of of naive L. salmonis for use in sea lice research
- live feed cultures
- marine fish broodstock and larval rearing facilities
- sample preparation laboratory
- dedicated research and support staff to oversee all operations