In the wake of the horsemeat scandal, the Scottish salmon farming industry now finds itself in a bit of a pickle. FishyLeaks reveals that Scottish farmed salmon was illegally doused with the carcinogenic chemical Formalin in a Special Area of Conservation and National Scenic Area on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Formalin is a highly toxic water-based solution of the known carcinogen Formaldehyde which is used as a preservative for biological specimens including artist Damien Hirst’s pickled sharks, cows and sheep.
A new report “Formalin: Scottish Salmon’s Toxic Solution” (sourced from 190 pages of Freedom of Information documents) reveals that:
- 1,400 litres of Formalin was discharged into Loch Roag “against SEPA advice”
- Formalin is a ‘carcinogen’, ‘toxic’ with a “danger of very serious irreversible effects”
- SNH warned of “significant toxicological impacts on marine life of Loch Roag”
- The Scottish Government fast-tracked Formalin use within one week instead of 8 weeks with SEPA and SNH given only 48 hours to respond
- The Scottish Salmon Company failed to consult with conservation bodies despite admitting discharges took place in a Special Area of Conservation and National Scenic Area
The Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) has now filed a complaint with the European Commission for breach of the Habitats Directive and illegal discharges of carcinogenic chemicals into a Special Area of Conservation (read complaint online line).
“I’d rather eat one of Damien Hirst’s pickled sharks or pickled horses than chemically embalmed Scottish salmon,” said Don Staniford of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture. “It’s nauseating to think that the Scottish salmon farming industry’s warped idea of preservation is discharging the carcinogenic preservative Formalin into a Special Area of Conservation. No wonder ‘fresh’ Scottish salmon has such a long shelf life!”
“The Scottish salmon farming industry is clearly in a bit of pickle, continued Staniford. “The FOI documents show that the Scottish Salmon Company - aided and abetted by the Scottish Government - went rogue in Loch Roag. GAAIA is now demanding that the European Commission take swift action against the illegal fast-tracking of carcinogenic chemical discharges into a Special Area of Conservation. Cheap and nasty Scottish farmed salmon is the black sheep of the family and should be avoided like the plague.”
“Using carcinogenic chemicals to kill deadly parasites on farmed salmon does nothing to fix the problem,” said Staniford, author of ‘Silent Spring of the Sea’. “The solution staring us all in the face is to stop farming salmon in the sea and move the cages to land where chemical discharges can be treated and disposed of as safely as possible. Scotland’s pristine lochs must no longer be used as toxic toilets by the Norwegian-controlled salmon farming industry.”
“The Scottish salmon farming industry is talking a load of bull when it claims that the use of carcinogenic chemicals is necessary to protect animal welfare,” concluded Staniford, author of the forthcoming report ‘Smoke on the Water, Cancer on the Coast’. “If the factory fish farming industry cared anything about animal welfare they would not cram hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon – a migratory species – into a cage with the equivalent of a bath-tub of water space for each fish. Salmon farming is sickening.”
The FOI reply from the Scottish Government dated 23 November 2012 detailed 190 pages of documents – read in full online here from the Scottish Government (same file online here). GAAIA has filed further FOIs requesting data on Formalin use on Scottish salmon farms.
Read more via: “Formalin: Scottish Salmon’s Toxic Solution”
Read more via: "Pickled Scottish Salmon, Anyone? Rogue Use of Carcinogen in Loch Roag" (20 January 2013)
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