The Killing Farms - Scottish Salmon's Horror Story Continues!

New 'Case Information' published online by the Scottish Government last week (7 February 2020) gives a shocking snapshot into the lethal nature of salmon farming in Scotland.

In addition to mass mortalities on salmon farms (caused by infectious diseases, lice infestations and other production problems) the salmon farming industry is culling huge quantities of fish due to poor quality.

Scottish Salmon Watch has delved into the new 'Case Information' and puts some flesh onto the bones of 'The Killing Farms'.

First up is the shocking case of Norwegian-owned Scottish Sea Farms in Loch Spelve on the Isle of Mull (a site certified as "welfare-friendly" via RSPCA Assured). An inspection on 15 November 2019 by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate (published online on 7 February 2020) revealed that out of 382,344 salmon stocked on the site only 24,000 were harvested with 199,124 culled and 177,588 morts due to Complex Gill Disease (the figures are still estimates and need to be confirmed by Scottish Sea Farms - a company exposed by the BBC 'One Show' over mass mortalities back in 2017 in Loch Kishorn).

The 'mortality rate' was listed by the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation as a staggering 37.2% in October 2019 and a cumulative mortality rate of 40.6% (and the site was listed as 'fallow' - i.e. empty - in November 2019).

However the survival rate (i.e. the number of fish which made it to harvest) was a meagre 6% with only 24,000 harvested out of 382,000 stocked in the farm. Imagine walking past a field and seeing only 24 cows alive in a graveyard of over 350 dead cows. Faced with such animal cruelty the public would be outraged (yet the RSPCA continue to make over £500,000 per year from certifying Scottish salmon farms as 'welfare-friendly').

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?

It was not until 3 March 2020 that the Scotland's Aquaculture web-site published data on the weight of mortalities in Loch Spelve in October 2019 - a staggering 192 tonnes (data on the number of mortalities has not been published since 2013 following industry lobbying claiming that disclosure would be 'commercially damaging')!

You might also ask where was the SSPCA when hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon were dying in Loch Spelve. The person to contact would be Ronnie Soutar who is the Chair of the SSPCA and also just happens to be head of veterinary services at Scottish Sea Farms. The SSPCA was heavily criticised in 2018 when another salmon farming company - The Scottish Salmon Company - was guilty of severe welfare abuse in Loch Roag.

In view of the piss-poor surveillance of salmon farms it is not surprising that over 44,000 people have signed a SumOfUs petition calling for unannounced inspections of salmon farms.

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:

The Fish Health Inspectorate 'Case Information' published on 7 February 2020 refers to an "error in concentration of bath treatment" (Salmosan - an Azamethiphos-based organophosphate known to kill shellfish) with the chemical treatment being aborted when "a few fish were starting to go over".

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".

Further 'Case Information' for December 2019 published by the Scottish Government on 7 February 2020 details a mass mortality of 25,966 dead salmon due to the Thermolicer at Mowi's farm in Loch Duich (a contentious site which Mowi has pledged to close down).

This was reported via the Scottish Government's new mortality data for December 2019 published online on 7 February:

Watch video footage of the Thermolicer torture chamber in action at Mowi's salmon farm in Loch Leven:

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".

Another FHI 'Case Information' report for The Scottish Salmon Company in December 2019 reveals culls at Loch Langavat on their Isle of Harris - including 25,088 in November 2019 due to "quality reasons" and a "grading cull" of 21,407 in October 2019 and another "grading cull" of 30,557 in September 2019.

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.

The poor quality of The Scottish Salmon Company's disease-ridden operations is obvious to anyone who has dared to lift the lid.

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.