Scottish Salmon Watch has appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) to force the disclosure of documents in relation to Benchmark's 'Clean Treat' method of lice treatment and has asked both the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Scottish Government to review their refusal of information in relation to the secret chemical treatment BMK08 (perhaps also known as Ectosan).
So whilst the Scottish Government and SEPA refuse to disclose information on Clean Treat and BMK08 (which could be the same as Ectosan) investors are pumping money in Benchmark.
Is BMK08 destined to be a magic bullet or will it be remembered as a toxic trade like a failed Ponzi scheme?
Whatever the case, surely the public has a right to know certainly before BMK08 is used on Scottish salmon farms (if it has not been used already)?
When asked for a site visit to the Clean Treat operation and specific information on BMK08, Benchmark replied to Scottish Salmon Watch:
Scottish Salmon Watch visited Benchmark's Laboratory at Ardtoe in July 2019:
SEPA's lack of transparency in terms of toxic chemical use by salmon farming operations is shocking. Scottish Salmon Watch Tweeted yesterday (26 February 2020):
From: <enquiries@itspublicknowledge.info> Date: Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 8:09 AM Subject: Update on Application for Decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner - 202000275 To: <salmonfarmingkills@gmail.com>
Our Ref 202000275
11 June 2020
Dear Mr Staniford
Application for Decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner Public Authority: Scottish Environment Protection Agency
I wrote to you in March to let you know that we were closing the office because of the COVID-19 virus. In line with government guidance, the office premises remain closed. For the past 12 weeks, my two deputies and I have been working hard to keep the work of the wider Enforcement Team going. While we have been able to accept new applications, respond to enquiries and progress some cases (including issuing a number of decisions), the work we have been able to do has been limited. The good news is that we are finally able to access our IT systems remotely and so can now access your case file. Five additional members of the team are also now working remotely. We hope to be able to continue to roll out remote access to other members of the Enforcement Team over the next month or so. I am sorry that your investigation has been delayed, but we should now be able to make some progress. We’ll be in touch as soon as we can. If you have any questions about your case, or decide you no longer want the investigation to go ahead, please email sjenkins@itspublicknowlede.info. Thank you for your continued patience.
In January 2020, Mowi warned people to keep away from their farms. "As activists continue to sidestep the democratic process in favour of interrupting work spaces, governments must step up to protect the health and safety of employees working within the laws of the country," wrote Mowi Scotland's Director of Communications in Fish Farmer magazine (16 January 2020).
The Sunday National & Ferret reported in November 2019:
Mowi's salmon farm at MacLean's Nose in Loch Sunart reported 140,873 dead salmon in six incidents in 2019 (all in May) with Cardiomyopathy Syndrome cited as the reason for mortalities (it appears that Mowi may not have reported the incidents immediately):
Mowi's salmon farm at Camas Glas in Loch Sunart reported 128,361 dead salmon in three incidents in 2019 (all in October) with Pasteurella skyensis cited as the reason for mortalities:
Mowi's salmon farm at Poll na Gille in Loch Shuna reported 114,514 dead salmon in five incidents in 2019 (all in September & October) with Anaemia, Pasteurella skyensis, complex gill disease, treatment losses and Hydrolicer treatments cited as reasons for mortalities:
Incomplete mortality data published by the Scottish Government on 7 February 2020 reveals that Scottish Sea Farms reported six 'Mortality Event Reports' in Loch Spelve during 2019 (five of them in November) with a mortality rate as high as 22.1% but numbers of dead farmed salmon per incident was "not provided".
However, the PSI case 20190701 referred to above does not provide more detailed information and it is apparent that the Fish Health Inspectorate did not even visit the Loch Spelve salmon farm - with zero hours spent on site (i.e. the inspection took place over the phone!).
So let's go through that again - a staggering 199,124 farmed salmon were culled and a whopping 177,588 farmed salmon were reported as dead in what is believed to be one of the biggest die offs in recent years. It seems mortalities started on 16 September 2019 and continued throughout October until 29 October 2019 when the site became fallow. Yet the Fish Health Inspectorate was not officially informed until 14 November 2019 and an 'inspection' took place over the phone on 15 November 2019 with a letter sent to Scottish Sea Farms on 16 November 2019.
Doesn't that stink to high heaven to you? Scottish Salmon Watch have asked the Fish Health Inspectorate for further details on this shocking case including specific details on the numbers of dead fish and why Scottish Sea Farms did not notify the Fish Health Inspectorate much sooner. And how can the RSPCA - which shamelessly certify the Loch Spelve salmon farm via RSPCA Assured - endorse such cruelty and suffering?
Unlike the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate, Scottish Salmon Watch actually visited Loch Spelve in August 2018 and obtained shocking video footage of lice-infested 'cleaner fish' swimming inside the Scottish Sea Farms site (which had been fitted with a 'lice skirt').
Here's more video footage from the RSPCA Assured (formerly called Freedom Foods) salmon farm in Loch Spelve:
When Scottish Salmon Watch visited another salmon farm operated by Scottish Sea Farms off Shuna Island in Loch Linnhe in July 2019, Police Scotland acted as private security and told us we required permission from the Norwegian-owned giant to be in public waters.
Last week (7 February 2020) the Scottish Government published updated mortality data for salmon farms up to the end of December 2019.
The Fish Health Inspectorate data includes over 10,000 dead salmon due to chemical overdosing at Grieg Seafood's Linga salmon farm in Setterness in December 2019:
It is not only mass mortalities of farmed salmon but so-called 'cleaner fish' which die in their thousands on salmon farms. The newly published 'Case Information' for December 2019 includes the deaths of 10,000 lumpfish (100% mortality) due to bacterial infection as well as thousands of dead farmed salmon due to "grumbling CMS" (Cardiomyopathy Syndrome) at The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm in Loch Odhairn on the Isle of Lewis.
Shamefully, mortalities of cleanerfish (raised as a welfare problem in a report published in December 2018 by OneKind) are not routinely reported by the Fish Health Inspectorate. The Scottish Salmon Company's Loch Odhairn salmon farm has an appalling history of mass mortalities - filing 22 'Mortality Event Reports' totaling over 345,000 dead farmed salmon since 2017. In four cases the number of morts was "not disclosed" with the FHI writing in one case: "Company unwilling to disclose the % of the mortality or the number of fish involved" and "Discussions ongoing to get actual figures".
The horror of the culling farms knows no bounds - here's another case report from December 2019 (published by the Scottish Government on 7 February 2020) detailing the culling of 199,000 farmed salmon in August 2019 "due to poor quality" at The Scottish Salmon Company's Barvas Hatchery on the Isle of Lewis.
The Fish Health Inspectorate's mortality data records three 'Mortality Event Reports' at The Scottish Salmon Company's Barvas Hatchery with one mass mortality of 90,000 farmed salmon citing costia, fungus and deformities along with "poor ova quality".
The Fish Health Inspectorate's mortality data records two 'Mortality Event Reports' at The Scottish Salmon Company's Loch Langavat site with 34,000 dead farmed salmon due to fungus (shockingly it seems other farmed salmon infected with fungus were "transferred to sea during same week, on veterinary advice".
Another FHI 'Case Information' report for The Scottish Salmon Company in December 2019 reveals regular culls at the Amhuinnsuidhe Hatchery on the Isle of Harris. The report details "quality culls through the year at grading or vaccination usually about 25,000" with a "159,000 quality cull due to small size" in November 2018. In February 2018 there were also 65,170 dead ova.
So instead of the call of the wild salmon, the horror story that is Scottish salmon has degenerated into the cull of the farms. Or as BBC reporter Joe Crowley put it on 'The One Show' in December 2017 (when exposing mass mortalities at Scottish Sea Farms in Loch Kishorn), the run of wild salmon leaping up waterfalls has been replaced by 'The Dead Salmon Run' and a convoy of haulage trucks transporting dead farmed salmon away from the Highlands & Islands of Scotland.
The horror story that is Scottish salmon farming is destined to run and run.