Victory for Freedom of Information

When David Sandison of the Scottish Salmon Polluters Organisation (SSPO) testified to the Scottish Parliament's inquiry into the environmental impacts of salmon farming (6 February) he was staring down the barrel of a loaded gun (watch a video report via Scottish Parliament TV online here).

The front-man for the Scottish Salmon Polluters Organisation (SSPO) could be forgiven for feeling like a seal caught in the cross-hairs (one of the 800+ seals killed by Scottish salmon farmers since 2011 - data disclosed following a landmark ruling from the Scottish Information Commissioner in 2015).

Thanks to significant rulings by the Scottish Information Commissioner on escapes (2006), seals killed by salmon farms (2015), lice infestations (2017) and recent FOI disclosures on mortalities and infectious diseases by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency a great deal of damning data - for decades hidden away via Scottish Salmon Farming's Room 101 - was now in the public domain and available to MSPs who grilled the SSPO general manager to a crisp.

The disclosure of damning data has by no means been an overnight success - it can be traced back to 2006 when award-winning writer Bruce Sandison (aka Old Trout in Private Eye) won a landmark ruling from the Scottish Information Commissioner on escapes.

Thanks to Bruce, a precedent had now been set for the disclosure of site specific data on salmon farms. The can of worms that is Scottish salmon farming was slowly opened.

But it was not until November 2017, following a ruling by the Scottish Information Commissioner in September 2017, that Salmon & Trout Conservation were finally in a position to publish site specific sea lice data - including 62 salmon farms breaching lice limits (51 of whom are members of the Scottish Salmon Polluters Organisation):

That is has taken over a decade of FOI requests from the Salmon Farm Protest Group, Pure Salmon Campaign, Salmon & Trout Conservation, FishyLeaks, Save Our Seals Fund, Protect Wild Scotland, Save Seil Sound, Scottish Salmon Think Tank and GAAIA as well as tireless work by campaigning journalists such as Rob Edwards and Mark Macaskill via exposés in The Sunday Herald, The Ferret, The Sunday Times and The Daily Mail to force disclosure shows the power of the Scottish salmon farming lobby and their protective guardians in the Scottish Government and Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

"FOI Number Five – getting you the information they don’t want you to see!"

"Scottish salmon farming’s ‘liciest’ farms named and shamed"

"Scotland’s worst sea lice offenders: Full Farm List"

"Slicegate: Anatomy & Chronology of an Environmental Lobotomy"

"Revealed: Scandal of 45 Scottish lochs trashed by pollution"

"Campaigners welcome ruling on seal shooting disclosure"

"Victory: Disclosure of Seal-Killing Salmon Farm Data Ordered by 21 August"

"FishyLeaks: Scottish Salmon Infested With Parasites - Sea Lice Data Reveals 1001 Reasons to Boycott Farmed Salmon"

"FishyLeaks: Scottish Salmon's Toxic Toilets Named & Shamed"

Scottish Information Commissioner Decision 182/2006 Mr Bruce Sandison and the Fisheries Research Services - Request for information relating to the escape of salmon from an Orkney fish farm

"Gaining Transparency: using the FOIA process to track down data on the impacts of fish farming"

"Scottish Farmed Salmon Exposed"

The tipping point may well have come in December 2017 when the BBC's 'The One Show' broadcast shocking footage of leaking wastes with reporter Joe Crowley tracking 'The Dead Salmon Run' from diseased salmon farms in Loch Kishorn.

Read more via:

The BBC's 'Dead Salmon Run' broadcast was cited several times by MSPs yesterday:

And during last week's meeting (30 January) when Alex Rowley MSP said the issue was now so hot that the horrors of Scottish salmon farms were "being discussed in the pub on a Friday night":

"Secrecy is poison in these discussions," said John Aitchison of Friends of the Sound of Jura during yesterday's inquiry.

Realising that the Scottish Salmon Polluters Organisation could not hold back the landslide of damning data any longer, Mr Sandison clearly had no choice but to pledge to disclose data on lice infestations, mortalities and diseases.

Bluster before yesterday's meeting (a full transcript will be published by 6pm on Friday 9 February) saw the SSPO claiming that their appearance before the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee would be an opportunity to "bust a few myths" and "set the record straight".

However, a barrage of questions from MSPs armed with the latest data on diseases and mortalities pointed the finger squarely on the Scottish Salmon Polluters Organisation.

John Aitchison of Friends of the Sound of Jura (supremely confident after fighting off the unwanted advances of a ravenous polar bear whilst filming the BBC's Frozen Planet) fired broadside after broadside against the disease-ridden Scottish salmon farming sector.

It was clear from anyone watching in person or via Scottish Parliament TV that the environmental record of the salmon farming industry is far from straight.

Loch Duart - The (Really Not Very) Sustainable Salmon Company

Scottish Salmon Farming 101

The road ahead for the salmon farming industry becomes ever more challenging as the Scottish Parliament's inquiry opens the floodgates on more and more damning evidence (written evidence can still be submitted until the end of tomorrow - Thursday 8 February and a report will be sent by the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee in early March).

Thanks to the power of Freedom of Information, campaigners, campaigning journalists and 'militant' MSPs there are now serious question marks over the salmon farming industry's aim of doubling production by 2030 (read more via 'Scottish aquaculture: a view towards 2030') and of meeting export requirements for the US market (worth £200 million).