Data published by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate in March 2019 reveals a staggering three hundred 'Mortality Event Reports' by The Scottish Salmon Company alone involving over 2.46 million dead farmed salmon ('morts') between 2017 and the end of January 2019. In total over 8.38 million mortalities were reported via 748 events involving The Scottish Salmon Company, Marine Harvest/Mowi, Scottish Sea Farms, Grieg Seafood, Loch Duart, Wester Ross Fisheries and Cooke Aquaculture. Reported causes of mortality included Amoebic Gill Disease, Salmonid Alphavirus, Piscine Reovirus, Heart & Skeletal Muscle Inflammation, Pancreas Disease, Haemorrhagic Smolt Syndrome, Cardiomyopathy Syndrome, Anaemia, Fungus, Proliferative Gill Disease and Enteric Redmouth Disease.
Gruesome footage of lice-ridden salmon captured by photographer Corin Smith at The Scottish Salmon Company was featured on the BBC's 'One Show' in September 2018 and also used in a recent video message by Sir David Attenborough.
Here's some of the 'Mortality Event Reports' for The Scottish Salmon Company (a company registered in Jersey, floated on the Norwegian stock exchange and whose largest shareholder is an anonymous bank account held at the Swiss stock exchange and believed to be controlled by Ukrainian banker Yuriy Lopatinskyy).
Other more recent events reported to the Scottish Government by The Scottish Salmon Company do not provide mortality figures (in 2013 the Scottish salmon farming industry successfully lobbied against the disclosure of mortality figures arguing that publication would be "commercially damaging"):
Download Excel spreadsheet in full online here
Infectious diseases, viruses and pathogens officially reported by The Scottish Salmon Company to the Scottish Government in 2017 and 2018 included: Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD), Salmonid Alphavirus (SAV), Pancreas Disease (PD), Haemorrhagic Smolt Syndrome (HSS), Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS), Anaemia, Fungus, Vibrio anguillarum, Proliferative Gill Disease (PGD) and Enteric Redmouth Disease (ERM).
Read more background via "Scottish Salmon's Mort Mountain - Leaping to Record Levels in 2018?"
Watch a video report from a salmon farm operated by The Scottish Salmon Company at Strondoir Bay in Loch Fyne - online here
Here's video footage of deformed farmed salmon from The Scottish Salmon Company on sale in Billingsgate market in London in December 2018:
And footage of deformed and diseased salmon swimming inside The Scottish Salmon Company's farm at Quarry Point in Loch Fyne in the Summer of 2018:
Read more via The Sunday Post: Underwater film reveals salmon with twisted spines as fears mount over cages
In 2018, lawyers acting on behalf of The Scottish Salmon Company (TSSC) threatened legal action if the Scottish Government disclosed damning photos of disease-ridden farmed salmon. As The Ferret reported in August 2018:
Here's some of the photos - obtained by Scottish Salmon Watch via Freedom of Information - The Scottish Salmon Company did not want the public the see (published in June 2018 by The Ferret).
And more photos (sourced from Scottish Government Fish Health Inspections in 2017 and 2018) published by Scottish Salmon Watch in June 2018 and in August 2018)
And here's more stomach-churning photos of diseased salmon at The Scottish Salmon Company in 2016 (published by Scottish Salmon Watch in August 2018 - and sourced from the Scottish Government Fish Health Inspectorate surveillance):
The Ferret also reported in September 2018 on shocking images published by photographer Corin Smith from The Scottish Salmon Company's lice-infested salmon farm at Vacasay in Loch Roag on the Isle of Lewis:
The Daily Mail reported in September 2018:
If The Scottish Salmon Company was being honest with their customers and the public, the marketing for their 'Lochlander' salmon would look more like this.
Than this marketing image.
In November 2018, Scottish Salmon Watch published photos from a whistleblower who worked at The Scottish Salmon Company.
In view of their appalling track record and poor public relations image (including leaked emails describing opposition on the Isle of Harris as a 'Vipers Nest'), it is not surprising that local communities are rising up against The Scottish Salmon Company. In a Facebook post yesterday (2 April), Corin Smith asked about The Scottish Salmon Company's plans to expand on the Isle of Arran:
For anyone still sitting on the fish farm fence, here's photos of maggot-infested mortalities at Lamlash Bay on the Isle of Arran:
More details via "Stushie for Scottish Salmon!"
Sign a petition against salmon farming expansion on the Isle of Arran online here
Read more on diseases, viruses and pathogens reported on Scottish salmon farms during 2018 via: New Report - "The State of Scottish Salmon Farming in 2018"
Read more about the murky foreign interests behind The Scottish Salmon Company online via 'Scottish Scamon'.
Watch a video report from The Scottish Salmon Company's processing plant at Cairndow on Loch Fyne online here
Read more on disease-ridden 'Scottish' salmon via:
- Mowi's Disease-Ridden Mortalities - 1.6 million+ in 101 incidents (2017-2018)
- BBC News: "Sea lice blamed for major fall in salmon tonnage"
- Press Release: "The Sorry State of Scottish Salmon Farming in 2018"
- Press Release: "Scottish Scamon"