Mowi's Ghoul* at Ardintoul

If you go down to the salmon farm today, you're sure of a big surprise.

If you go down to the salmon farm today, you'd better go in disguise.

Watch them, catch them unawares.

But a visit to Ardintoul on the shore of Loch Alsh (a Marine Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation) is certainly no Teddy Bear's picnic site.

In fact, after viewing photos taken by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate on a visit to Ardintoul in 2016 it's enough to make you want to vomit up your breakfast, dinner and lunch (no wonder Marine Harvest changed their name to Mowi in January 2019 due to "negative consumer perception").

Here's photos of Mowi's dead, diseased and decaying salmon at their land base in Ardintoul taken during a visit on 2nd November 2019 (Mowi admitted earlier this month that the mortality rate at some sites is running at 24% but some cages have reported mortality rates of over 50%).

These are the poor salmon which did not make it to the supermarket to be branded "as safe and healthy as it is delicious" (Mowi Scotland serves three major customers: Sainsbury's, Aldi & Lidl).

When Scottish Salmon Watch filmed inside one salmon cage at Mowi's Ardintoul sea farm there was visible white head and fin damage and unhealthy looking fish (despite poor visibility and light conditions - it was just after sunrise at ca. 8am).

From the surface of the cage there appeared to be what looked like the carcass of a dead farmed salmon trapped in the net.

When Scottish Salmon Watch filmed at Mowi Ireland's salmon farm at Anny Point in Lough Swilly in July 2019 we saw dead salmon floating on the surface.

Sadly, filming at Ardintoul was interrupted by Mowi workers and boats who unclipped my kayak, kicked my paddle into the water and claimed the Police were on their way (drone footage of events will hopefully be made available soon).

Scottish Salmon Watch visited Ardintoul following a tip-off from a whistleblower who claimed that the area was a graveyard for the corpses of diseased farmed salmon and was "awash with mort juice".

Shockingly, all Mowi's salmon are certified as welfare-friendly by the RSPCA (who receive close to a million pounds for stamping ca. 70% of Scottish salmon farming production with the RSPCA Assured logo).

When Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's Ardintoul site on 2nd November 2019 there were two Gogar skips with the warning "Not for Human Consumption" (sadly we did not have the opportunity to open the lid to video the diseased salmon inside).

For those with a strong stomach, here's video footage of a Billy Bowie skip full of diseased salmon at Mowi's salmon farm at Gorsten in Loch Linnhe.

Video footage of a Gogar truck spewing diseased salmon onto the A86 was published in September 2019.

A Mowi worker (believed to be the same person who called me a "cunt" and scraped his work boat down my Achilles tendon earlier that morning) was filmed tying up mort bins to ensure against prying eyes or Go Pro cameras.

Mowi has been recently forced to come clean on the extent of their mortality and welfare problems. Mowi reported lice and mortality problems at Ardintoul in September & October 2019 including "treatment loss", "physical damage" and anaemia (according to Mowi there was a visit by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspection in mid-October 2019 with a report expected to be published online next month).

Surely it is time for Mowi to move out of Loch Alsh 'Special Area of Conservation' as well as their "contentious" salmon farm in Loch Duich?

The Press & Journal reported (1 November 2019): "An estimated 24% of fish were lost at nine sea farms along the west coast and Western Isles over the past four months, according to the firm."

The Sunday National & Ferret reported (10 November 2019):

The rising disease and mortality problems were forecast back in May by Mowi's Health Manager who predicted a "painful" September and October.

Last month, Scottish Salmon Watch revealed that Mowi's salmon farm at Ardgour in Loch Linnhe had suffered from up to 55% mortality with disease problems including Cardiomyopathy Syndrome, Pancreas Disease, Heart & Skeletal Muscle Inflammation and Pasteurella skyensis (a bacterium cited in the deaths of 125,000 farmed salmon at Mowi's Isle of Lewis salmon farms in 2017).

When Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's Linnhe salmon farm at Ardgour in early July 2019 harvesting out was well under way with Health & Safety violations spotted by an eagle-eyed John Robins of Animal Concern.

In September 2019, Scottish Salmon Watch revealed huge disease problems at Mowi's salmon farm at Kingairloch also in Loch Linnhe (again sourced from a Fish Health Inspectorate report published online) including Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS), Pasteurella skyensis, multifocal hepatic necrosis, Salmonid Alphavirus, anorexia, lesions, haemorrhaging and deformed hearts.

More gruesome photos of welfare abuse and disease problems at Mowi's farm off the Isle of Rum were published online by the Scottish Government on 10 September 2019: