The Times reported (28 August 2019):
Hamish Macdonell knows The Times newspaper all too well - he was Scottish political editor at The Times before leaving to join the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation in September 2018.
In March 2018, Hamish reported for The Times on the "huge risk to the environment" from salmon farming:
Now his job is to bury the truth about disease-ridden Scottish salmon farming.
Photo: Truly stressed and skinless Scottish salmon - battered and flayed alive at a Mowi salmon farm in Kilbrannan Sound in March 2018 (Mowi admitted to The Sunday Mail that 300,000 farmed salmon died)
Hamish Macdonell and The Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) has refused to coordinate site visits:
From: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Aug 23, 2019 at 3:31 PM
Subject: Site visits on 31 Aug & 1 September?
To: Hamish Macdonell <[email protected]>
Cc: Mark Carter <[email protected]>, Marshall, Sophie <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>
Hamish,
Further to our conversation at the Scottish Parliament earlier this year, would it be possible to organize site visits to salmon farms over the weekend of 31 August & 1 September?
We have a police liaison officer (former policeman Mark Carter of Marine Concern - copied in here) who knows the area well and is willing to board any police boat or Scottish Sea Farms/Mowi boat to monitor the events.
Prior to the visits we could meet to discuss specific plans and doubly ensure that safety and biosecurity measures are addressed.
You can read letters to Police Scotland via:
And you can read about our biosecurity & safety protocols via https://donstaniford.typepad.com/my-blog/2019/07/biosecurity-precautions-for-filming-salmon-farms-.html
I know Scottish Sea Farms (copied in here) have concerns about biosecurity, safety and animal welfare.
I have also copied in Mowi's head of communications Ian Roberts along with Police Scotland's Sophie Marshall who I spoke with earlier this week and briefed her on our plans.
Here's the latest schedule:
We'll be taking water samples near the salmon farms and would also like to board the farms to take photos, video and samples of farmed salmon and cleaner fish for disease testing (we will be accompanied by a trained veterinarian).
From the recently published Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate data on mortalities and disease it seems that Mowi has welfare problems at Bagh Dail Nan Ceann and Poll Na Gille in particular:
Scottish Salmon's Mort Mountain Piles Ever Higher in 2019
Shocking Video Footage from Mowi's 'Bay of the Dead Heads' (Bagh Dail nan Ceann)
And filming in July at the Mowi/Kames salmon farm at South West Shuna (Rubh an Trilleachain) has uncovered footage of disease-looking cleaner fish:
Drone footage of the Shuna salmon farm operated by Scottish Sea Farms also raises serious welfare concerns: https://vimeo.com/348596635
It is also alarming that Police Scotland acted as a security guard for Scottish Sea Farms when the area in question is public waters with historic and intrinsic rights of navigation:
https://theferret.scot/staniford-police-scotland-scottish-sea-farms/
Scottish Salmon Watch believes that salmon farms on the West coast of Scotland may be breaching the Animal Health & Welfare Act (Scotland) 2006 in relation to "Unnecessary Suffering" (Section 19); "Cruel Operations" (Section 21) and "Ensuring Welfare of Animals" (Section 24).
Hence the calls by over 43,000 SumOfUs petitioners for immediate unannounced on-the-spot inspections: https://actions.sumofus.org/pages/stop-salmon-from-suffering-investigate-scottish-fish-farms-right-now-1
Do you think it would be possible to arrange formal site visits on 31 August and 1 September?
I am on 07771 541826 if you have any queries.
Thanks,
Don
Director of Scottish Salmon Watch
From: Hamish Macdonell <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Aug 26, 2019 at 9:11 PM
Subject: Re: Site visits on 31 Aug & 1 September?
To: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Cc: Mark Carter <[email protected]>, Marshall, Sophie <[email protected]>, [email protected] <[email protected]>, [email protected] <[email protected]>, Julie Hesketh-Laird <[email protected]>, Nathan Tyler <[email protected]>
Dear Don,
The SSPO cannot facilitate such visits to farms.
Anyone wanting to do so should approach the companies concerned.
Please see the guidance on the SSPO website relating to health and safety and visits to salmon farms.
http://scottishsalmon.co.uk/safety-near-salmon-farms/
Regards,
Hamish Macdonell
From: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: Site visits on 31 Aug & 1 September?
To: Hamish Macdonell <[email protected]>
Cc: Mark Carter <[email protected]>, Marshall, Sophie <[email protected]>, [email protected] <[email protected]>, [email protected] <[email protected]>, Julie Hesketh-Laird <jhesketh-laird[email protected]>, Nathan Tyler <[email protected]>
Hamish,
It is disappointing that the SSPO cannot coordinate site visits this weekend. If you change your mind I am on 07771 541826.
Re: the SSPO's advice on 'Safety Near Salmon Farms'
And specifically the statement:
"It is advised that a distance of 15 metres is maintained from the perimeter of a site to ensure safe passage and minimise any risk of harm or damage. You should avoid swimming, diving or kayaking closer than 15 metres to a fish farm"
Do you have any regulation, law or any guidance justifying such a distance? Is this backed up by Police Scotland, Marine Scotland, APHA or any other Government agency?
If the weather and water conditions are suitably safe then I certainly plan to swim and/or kayak much closer than 15 metres from the salmon farms. In order to collect samples of waste effluent to test for infectious diseases, pathogens, parasites, bacteria, contaminants, chemicals etc it is necessary to get as close as possible. I will have my family - including our 4 & 5 year old children on board the main boat - so the notion that I would be compromising safety is ludicrous.
Your "don't stress our fish" argument (as published in yesterday's Fish Farmer) simply does not hold water either. Read more via Protest "Poses Serious Risk to Our Salmon" Claim Scottish Sea Farms - Who's Calling Who "Dangerous"?
If salmon farmers held animal welfare in high regard then they would not be cramming a migratory species like the Atlantic salmon - the King of Fish - in lice-infested, disease-ridden cages. And salmon farmers would not be using a torture chamber for fish - the Thermolicer (watch video of the Voe Earl Thermolicer - used by Mowi - in Craobh Haven) - if they had any serious concerns about welfare. Norway is considering a ban and Scottish Salmon Watch believes Scotland should follow suit. Read more via Authorities mull over ban on thermal delousing.
It's an undeniable reality that salmon farming is a welfare nightmare with Mowi's site at Poll na Gille (where we will visit on Sunday 1 September) ranked by OneKind as the worst in Scotland. Mowi's Bagh Dail Nan Ceann salmon farm is ranked third worst by OneKind.
When we filmed inside a salmon cage at Bagh Dail Nan Cean (meaning 'Bay of the Dead Heads' in Gaelic) in July 2019 we were horrified by the dead and dying cleaner fish on the surface of the farm. Read our report via Shocking Video Footage from Mowi's 'Bay of the Dead Heads' (Bagh Dail nan Ceann).
As you are fully aware, when the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectors visited Mowi sites around Shuna in June 2019 they reported welfare, mortality and disease problems (including 'crater disease' in cleaner fish). Read more via Scottish Salmon's Mort Mountain Piles Ever Higher in 2019
Suffice to say here that getting closer than 15 metres (taking all biosecurity and safety protocols into account - read more via Biosecurity Precautions for Filming Salmon Farms) is required in order to see if Mowi and Scottish Sea Farms are breaching welfare laws (and health & safety for that matter) not to mention environmental pollution regulations.
In particular, Scottish Salmon Watch believes salmon farms are routinely breaching the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 - specifically in relation to "Unnecessary Suffering", "Cruel Operations" and "Ensuring Welfare of Animals".
We have strong reasons - probable cause if you want to use a criminal law term - to believe that Mowi and Scottish Sea Farms are guilty of welfare abuse similar to the gruesome photographic evidence obtained from the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate in 2018.
BBC Panorama broadcast video footage from diver David Ainsley showing waste pollution under a Mowi salmon farm around Shuna (Poll na Gille). Watch via 'Salmon Farming Exposed'.
If David Ainsley had stayed 15 metres away he would not have captured nauseating video footage of dead and diseased salmon at the bottom of a salmon farm operated by Mowi around Shuna either. Watch online here and online here.
We are hoping to have a diver on board and if they dived under Scottish Sea Farms and/or Mowi farms then staying 15 metres away would not show the state of waste pollution, welfare problems or mass mortalities. Or that is the SSPO's intention in warning us off?
From 15 metres away we should still be able to hear the Acoustic Deterrent Devices used by Mowi - indeed peer-reviewed scientific research has shown that cetaceans such as harbour porpoises can hear the noise pollution from salmon farms as far as 25 km away. Read more via BBC Countryfile on ADDs impacting on cetaceans
As Scottish Salmon Watch has offered previously, we have Mark Carter of Marine Concern on hand willing to act as a police liaison. Mark is an ex-policeman and also knows the waters around Oban well as a kayaker and marine expert.
We would be happy to meet with the SSPO, Scottish Sea Farms, Mowi and Police Scotland prior to the events over the weekend to further discuss safety and biosecurity.
As previously requested, we would kindly ask Mowi and Scottish Sea Farms to establish a cease-fire over the weekend and take fire-arms off the site. I will be dressed as a seal and the bullet proof vest is fake (just like M&S's Lochmuir salmon). Read more via Letter to Police Scotland re. protocol for filming salmon farms
Given our plans to be in the water - designated public waters afforded protection to navigation and recreation under Scottish law - around salmon farms could I please ask that Mowi and Scottish Sea Farms stop chemical delousing over the coming week? Boats carrying toxic chemicals have been seen recently in the area where we will be swimming and we do not want our health to be impacted by pesticides known to be lethal to lobsters and other marine life.
We will be wearing gas masks but again these are not real and we would ask that Mowi & Scottish Sea Farms respect public safety and public health.
If you have any concerns or queries please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information including specific details on the protests is available via: Swim for Salmon, Cetaceans, Lobsters & Seals!
Thanks,
Don
Director of Scottish Salmon Watch
Scottish Salmon Watch has asked Mowi & Scottish Sea Farms to set up official site visits:
From: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 8:07 AM
Subject: Fwd: Site visits on 31 Aug & 1 September?
To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>
Cc: Mark Carter <[email protected]>, Marshall, Sophie <[email protected]>
Would it be possible to have a official site visits to your salmon farms on 31 August and 1 September?
We will be in the public waters close to your salmon farms - adhering to all biosecurity and safety protocols - and would like to take samples of diseased salmon for testing as well as waste effluents.
If you would like to meet prior to the protests then we would be happy discuss any concerns you may have. Mark Carter (copied in here) is willing to board any Police Scotland (Sophie Marshall of Police Scotland is copied in here too - we have been speaking to her about our protests) or salmon farm boat to be on the water around the salmon farms.
Scottish Salmon Watch takes the issue of biosecurity and safety extremely seriously (see my email to the SSPO below for more details).
I am on 07771 541826 if you have any questions.
Best fishes,
Don
Here's a Tweet to Mowi and Scottish Sea Farms (27 August 2019):
Read more via:
- Press & Journal: "Claims fish farm protest must be halted on health and safety grounds"
- The Scotsman: "Protestors set to target west coast fish farms"
- "Don’t stress our fish, campaigners told"
- Press Release: "Swim protest against salmon farming pollution on Scotland’s west coast"
- "Mowi are talking rubbish" says National Trust in the Financial Times
- Swim for Salmon, Cetaceans, Lobsters & Seals!
- Ministers Gorge on Scottish Salmon à la John Gummer
- Protest "Poses Serious Risk to Our Salmon" Claim Scottish Sea Farms - Who's Calling Who "Dangerous"?
- Scottish Salmon's Mort Mountain Piles Ever Higher in 2019
- Mmmm Blind Scottish Salmon with Boils, Anyone?