Press Release: "Protests Against 'Diseased & Dangerous' Scottish Salmon"

Scottish Parliament Grills Salmon Farming Industry Until Mid-May

Download press release as a PDF online here

Fresh from a roasting on BBC's Reporting Scotland last night and still reeling from negative media coverage following the publication of a damning report by the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, the salmon farming industry is bracing itself for three months of further scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament.

In May, Scottish Salmon Watch will be organising protests outside the Scottish Parliament when Marine Harvest (2 May) and the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy & Connectivity (16 May) are grilled by the Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee.

Tomorrow (7 March) MSPs will question Professor Paul Tett of the Scottish Association of Marine Science and Professor James Bron and Professor Herve Migaud of the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture.

Last month, the Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee launched an inquiry: "To consider the current state of salmon industry in Scotland, identify opportunities for its future development and explore how the various fish health and environmental challenges it currently faces can be addressed".

According to a press release issued by the REC Committee: "A deadline of 27 April has been given for written submissions. The Committee will produce a report detailing its findings once it has concluded its anticipated evidence taking in March, April and May."

Scottish Salmon Watch revealed last week that the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO), Marine Harvest and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) met with the Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee before they agreed their remit for the inquiry and before they officially launched a call for views.

Tomorrow's Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee meeting will see the first witnesses give oral evidence with Salmon & Trout Conservation (who filed the petition which kick-started the Scottish Parliament's inquiry), Scottish Environment LINK and Fisheries Management Scotland scheduled to give evidence on 14 March; Highlands & Islands Enterprise on 25 April; Marine Harvest and the Scottish Seafood Association on 2 May; and the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy & Connectivity testifying on 16 May. Here's the timetable of the Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee's salmon farming inquiry:

"By the time the Scottish Parliament has finished grilling Marine Harvest and the Minister for Salmon Farming Expansion in May there might only be the charred remains of this disease-ridden industry left," said Don Staniford, Director of Scottish Salmon Watch. "Yesterday's damning report on the environmental impacts of salmon farming lays bare the industry's problems with infectious diseases, mass mortalities, dead seals, polluted lochs and toxic chemical wastes. The industry's expansion plans to double production by 2030 are now dead in the water along with the millions of diseased salmon which die each year on Scotland's lice-infested farms. Scottish salmon farms should be placed in quarantine and closed off as a biohazard. Far from being 'healthy', Scottish farmed salmon is diseased and dangerous."

Andrew Graham-Stewart of Salmon & Trout Conservation Scotland told The National (5 March): "This is a complete vindication of what we have been arguing for many years now, often in the face of denials and opposition from within Scottish Government and Scottish public authorities, that open cage salmon farming in sea lochs is way out of balance with the environment, particularly with the conservation of wild salmon and sea trout."

Victory for Freedom of Information - Opening the Can of Worms!

In November 2017, Salmon & Trout Conservation published damning data on 62 salmon farms breaching lice limits.

In December 2017, the BBC's 'One Show' broadcast footage of diseased salmon wastes leaking from haulage trucks on 'The Dead Salmon Run' prompting a complaint to the European Commission.

In February 2018, the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture published shocking data on infectious diseases and mortalities.

During questioning in the Scottish Parliament (6 February 2018), the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation pledged to publish site specific data on diseases, lice and mortalities (this data will be published "in April" according to David Sandison speaking on BBC Radio Shetland on 5 March 2018).

On 5 March 2018 the Scottish Parliament's Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee published a damning report on the environmental impacts of salmon farming.

In March, April and May 2018 the Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee's salmon farming inquiry will "consider the current state of salmon industry in Scotland, identify opportunities for its future development and explore how the various fish health and environmental challenges it currently faces can be addressed."