FishyLeaks: Scottish Salmon Infested With Parasites!

Ireland is not the only country where sea lice levels are out of control: data obtained from the Scottish Government via a Freedom of Information request reveals that salmon and sea trout across Scotland are infested with sea lice parasites.

Infestation levels of up to 145 sea lice per fish were recorded in Shieldaig in Wester Ross in 2012; up to 196 in Laxford in West Sutherland in 2008; 117 in Tarbert in Argyll in 2008; 113 in Sunart in Lochaber in 2008; and a staggering 1001 sea lice on a salmon sampled in Kanaird in Wester Ross in 2008.

Out of over 11,000 wild salmon and sea trout sampled since 1997 there were 2,750 fish with 10 or more sea lice; 913 fish with 50 or more sea lice and 367 fish with 100 or more sea lice. By far the worst area was Dundonnell in Wester Ross which reported 40 out of the top 50 infestation rates.

Read Scotland's sea lice data in full via FishyLeaks and read a press release online here

The latest information published by the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) also reveals alarming sea lice infestation levels across Scotland – with salmon farms in North Mainland 263% above the suggested lice treatment threshold of 1.0 adult female lice per fish; East Shetland 135% above the threshold; and West Shetland 123% above the threshold for the period September to December 2012.

Salmon farming companies operating in Scotland all report growing parasite problems. “Grieg Seafood Hjaltland has suffered from sea lice challenges in 2012,” stated Grieg Seafood in their Q3 2012 report published last month. “All regions reported higher sea lice levels at the end of the second quarter of 2012 compared to the second quarter of 2011,” stated Marine Harvest’s Q2 2012 report. Marine Harvest publishes their Q4 2012 report on Wednesday (6 February).

The revelations comes in the wake of a scientific paper published in November 2012 by the Royal Society which detailed the lethal impact of sea lice from salmon farms on wild salmon.

Scottish Government research published in February 2013 also revealed that sea lice from salmon farms impact wild sea trout up to 32km away. Another report published in January 2013 by the Rivers & Fisheries Trusts of Scotland detailed increased sea lice infestation levels on wild sea trout during 2012 compared to 2011 with an “increasing infestation pattern” and “detrimental lice loads above critical thresholds”.

The Scottish Government is protecting the salmon farming from public scrutiny. Last month, Marine Scotland refused a FOI request on sea lice as “manifestly unreasonable”. In a debate in the Scottish Parliament (9 January), the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse, also refused to publish sea lice data. “It is not that farm-by-farm data on sea lice are not being collected; the issue is more to do with publication,” testified the Minister. “Why does the Scottish Government seem so reluctant to go down the route of farm-by-farm data collection on sea lice?” asked Alex Fergusson MSP.

The issue of sea lice was also debated in December 2012 by the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee. “Publication of aggregated figures, controlled by the SSPO, on a delayed basis, is unacceptable in the 21st century for an industry which claims to ‘have nothing to hide’,” stated one submission. “We need data on a ‘real time’ basis to allow mitigation measures to be put in place at the time of crisis, rather than reflecting on a disaster after it has occurred. Why can Scotland not have a similar level of transparency from the largely Norwegian-owned operators to that which they are obliged to comply with in their home country?”

FishyLeaks revealed in December 2012 that sea lice data compiled by the Irish Government's Marine Institute for November 2012 revealed that Marine Harvest breached sea lice protocol levels (set at 2 ovigerous - pregnant female - lice per farmed salmon) for the FIFTH month running.