Production at the Ardtoe hatchery is targeted mainly at servicing the needs of existing
customers and is constrained by their ability to produce sufficient levels of live microalgae at
that latitude. This means that there is a greater reliance on intensive hatchery production of
phytoplankton. Therefore Ardtoe prefer to sell seed oysters at the relatively small size of 2 to
4mm although they can sometimes produce limited numbers of 6 to 8mm seed.