The Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, 16 April 2017
Viking Invasion Taints 'Scottish' Salmon
- 90% of Eggs Now Imported
Exclusive data obtained via Freedom of Information reveals that 90% of 'Scottish' salmon is now imported as eggs from overseas with Norway accounting for 86% of egg imports [1]. Campaigners are now calling on the Scottish Government to curb egg imports to protect the genetic integrity and sanitary status of 'Scottish' salmon [2].
Read more in today's Sunday Times: "‘Tartan imposters’ charge as fish egg imports hit 90%"
Data from the Scottish Government reveals the extent of the Viking invasion:
- Foreign egg imports accounted for 90% of all eggs laid down in 2015 compared to 13% in 2005
- 86% of imported eggs in 2016 were from Norway (up from 14% in 2003)
- Foreign egg imports rose from 16.8 million in 2003 to 59.8 million in 2015
- Domestic egg production in Scotland declined from 135 million in 2008 to 11.6 million in 2015 (it was 224 million in 1990! [3])
- In 2016, 53% (22.6 million) of imported eggs were sourced from Norway via Aquagen (a company genetically fingered by a peer-reviewed scientific paper as the source of ISA outbreak in Chile) [4]
- In 2016, Norwegian-owned Marine Harvest imported 14.5 million eggs - all from Norway - accounting for 34% of all egg imports
- In 2016, the Scottish Salmon Company imported 12.4 million eggs - again all from Norway - accounting for 30% of eggs imports
- No data for Scottish Sea Farms is available because "disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by Scottish Sea Farms and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests"
Download the FOI data from the Scottish Government as an Excel spreadsheet online here and read the Scottish Government's covering letter online here
"If you're tucking into 'Scottish' salmon this Easter please take a peek under the kilt to see if there's a Viking helmet lurking underneath," said Don Staniford, Director of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture. "A Viking bloodline is now flowing through so-called 'Scottish' salmon. Companies such as Marine Harvest, Scottish Sea Farms and the Scottish Salmon Company are trading on the internationally recognised image of Scottish salmon yet import salmon eggs from Norway. The Norwegian invasion has annihilated Scotland's iconic salmon and left a lasting legacy of genetic pollution. Salmo salar - the King of Fish - has been dethroned to leave a fake farmed salmon imposter, Salmo domensticus."
Last year, the Scottish Salmon Company (a company registered in Jersey with shareholders in Switzerland and Norway and bankrolled by Ukrainian banker Yuri Lopatinsky) unveiled 'Native Hebridean Salmon' which the company claims was "developed over many years from broodstock originally sourced directly from the cold, clear waters of the island of North Uist in the rugged Outer Hebrides of Scotland".
"The Scottish Salmon Company has developed its own 'native strain' of salmon broodstock," gushes the foreign-owned company on their web-site. "This unique Native Hebridean Salmon is heir to an ancestral bloodline stretching back millennia. Only salmon that share this pure Scottish island lineage and which are born, reared and harvested on the Hebrides qualify as Native Hebridean".
The FOI data reveals that 1.5 million eggs sourced from Aquagen in Norway were imported to Hebridean Smolts via the Scottish Salmon Company in 2016:
"This is surely a case of false marketing for Trading Standards or the Advertising Standards Authority," continued Staniford. "The Scottish Government, if they truly support Scottish salmon, should immediately stop imports of foreign ova. Importing eggs increases the risks of deadly diseases such as Infectious Salmon Anaemia - shown by peer-reviewed science to have been imported into Chile from infected eggs sourced from Aquagen (a company now importing over half the ova to Scotland)".
Background:
In 2014, The Sunday Times exposed Tesco's scam in selling imported salmon from Norway as '100% Scottish'. Scotland On Sunday reported how "Supermarkets sell Norwegian fish as ‘Scots’ salmon" prompting complaints by Protect Wild Scotland to Trading Standards and the Competition & Markets Authority.
In 2013, The Sunday Times reported that one in four wild Atlantic salmon from Scotland was genetically “tainted” by Norwegian fish. The Sunday Times also reported that "Scots fish are ‘Vikings with kilts on’".
Download press release in full with Notes to Editors online here
Read a FOI disclosure from the Scottish Government in May 2018 online here
Read a covering letter from the Scottish Government dated 24 May 2018 online here
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