A warning letter from the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia will be delivered later today (19 November) to Loch Duart’s office in Lochmaddy. GAAIA has also written to Her Majesty the Queen (who served Loch Duart farmed salmon at her Diamond Jubilee in June) asking her to screen her farmed salmon for Chlamydia and other infectious diseases which were reported this year in Loch Duart's "sustainable" farmed salmon.
Read a press release - "Fit for the Queen & Residents of Nova Scotia - Loch Duart’s Chlamydia-Contaminated Salmon?" - online here
“I am writing to you from New Scotland, Nova Scotia, where Loch Duart is seeking to have licences on our Eastern Shore to install three eighteen hectare open pen salmon feedlots,” wrote Marike Findlay, President of the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES). “We, the citizens of Nova Scotia, beseech you, the citizens of Scotland, to prevail upon your government not to allow Loch Duart to come to Nova Scotia to contaminate our waters. Pollution that severely damages our wild catch fisheries, our tourism industries, and our wild and pristine environment, is not the kind of diplomacy that needs to exist between the New and Old Scotlands.”
The letter concludes:
Read the letter in full online here and watch a video report of the letter being delivered yesterday (nobody was home so it will be redelivered today) online here
The letter, addressed to 'Scottish Citizens', was read out by Canadian citizen Elena Edwards of Wild Salmon First who is visiting from Canada.
Disease data obtained from Marine Scotland via Freedom of Information in August 2012 reveals that Loch Duart’s operations in Lochmaddy were riddled with infectious diseases including Epitheliocystis (Chlamydia), Salmonid Alphavirus (Salmon Pancreas Disease Virus) and Vibrio species (Winter Ulcer) during the period April to July 2012.
In July 2012, following a FOI request, Marine Scotland also revealed that escapees from Loch Duart’s operations in Lochmaddy in December 2011 had “some Amoebic Gill Disease” (Read more via “Gill Diseases: Scottish Salmon’s Dirty Big Secret”).
In June 2012, Her Majesty the Queen and her guests at her Diamond Jubilee luncheon dined on farmed salmon from Loch Duart’s operations in the Uists. Last year, Loch Duart farmed salmon was on the menu for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Buckingham Palace.
“Chlamydia-infected farmed salmon is not fit for the Queen’s corgis let alone the Royal Family,” said Don Staniford of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) who will deliver the letter on behalf of APES.
“Loch Duart markets itself around the world as ‘The Sustainable Salmon Company’ but if truth be told it should re-name itself ‘The Chlamydia Company’.”
“Loch Duart is a mange-ridden wolf in salmon’s clothing who has duped Her Majesty the Queen, Prince William, the Marine Conservation Society and some of the world’s top chefs including Rick Stein,” continued Staniford who visited Loch Duart’s operations in Lochmaddy yesterday (18 November).
“The fact is that Loch Duart is a company which uses known shellfish-killing chemicals such as Teflubenzuron, Azamethiphos, Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin and Emamectin benzoate and has an appalling history of escapes. Chlamydia-infected farmed salmon from Loch Duart should be avoided like the plague.”
Watch a video report shot yesterday (18 November) at Loch Duart’s operations in North Uist – online here
In September 2012, Fishyleaks published damning data on Loch Duart’s use of toxic chemicals. Following the revelations, The Chronicle Herald in Nova Scotia reported that the findings “will not hurt the company’s pending application, says a Fisheries and Aquaculture Department spokesman.”
According to the data supplied by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Loch Duart was the fifth largest user of toxic chemicals in Scottish salmon farming using a total of 89350.988g in the period 2008-2011 – including 53490g of the organophosphate Azamethiphos; 23555.1g of the insecticide Teflubenzuron, 5949.538g of the pesticide Emamectin benzoate; 3565.5g of the lobster-killing Cypermethrin; and 2790.85g of the bath treatment Deltamethrin.
Loch Duart is now using vast quantities of hydrogen peroxide to treat the Chlamydia-like parasites responsible for Amoebic Gill Disease and Epitheliocystis.
For more background read
“Loch
Duart – The Toxic Salmon Company”
Loch Duart’s plans to expand into Eastern Canada via Snow Island Salmon have been met with fierce community opposition. Earlier this month, South Coast Today reported that: “Loch Duart may be considering pulling out of Snow Island Salmon altogether. This is due, say sources, “to the huge disease outbreak on his farms in Scotland and perhaps the fierce resistance to his company here in the area.”
In March 2012, a letter sent to Loch Duart from the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore warned that “80-90% of the citizens of the Eastern Shore are against Loch Duart coming here”. “Many citizens have researched Loch Duart online and are aware of its terrible record,” continued the letter. “They have learned that Loch Duart is in no way better than any other salmon farm although they always claim to be. They are among the companies with most extensive use of toxic chemicals in all of Scotland. It’s also widely known that Loch Duart Ltd has an appalling track record on escapes. The people of the Eastern Shore do not want Loch Duart despoiling their pristine coastline, polluting their coastal waters and spoiling their sustainable fisheries and industries.”
For more background read “Loch Duart’s ‘Sustainable Salmon’ Scam Exposed”
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