Documents disclosed via Freedom of Information lay bare how the Scottish Government is desperately pushing a "fruitful working relationship" with the disease-ridden salmon farming lobby.
A £38,186.50 per year contract (understood to be funded for 3 years) awarded by Scottish Ministers to Fisheries Management Scotland in April 2020 specifies as one of the main "objectives/expected outcomes" of the newly appointed 'Aquaculture Interactions Manager':
Anyone who has investigated salmon farming will understand what a barrel of rotten apples companies such as Mowi, The Scottish Salmon Company and Grieg Seafood are in practice.
It is encouraging that Fisheries Management Scotland - despite being tempted by forbidden fruit - appears still willing to speak out for wild fish against the threats posed by salmon farms. Here's a letter disclosed by the Scottish Government via FOI in July 2020:
Last month (28 August 2020), Scottish Salmon Watch wrote to Scottish Ministers repeating calls for hefty fines, rescinded licences for repeat offenders like Mowi and fines for highly paid executives.
On 24 September 2020, the Scottish Government replied:
The Scottish Government has employed the word "fruitful" before in terms of their desired relationship between salmon farming and wild fisheries. A FOI disclosure in July 2018 via FOI-18-01690 included reference to "fruitful cooperation" and "fruitful" outcomes of bilateral discussions:
Judas sold out Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. According to documents finally disclosed by the Scottish Government via Freedom of Information earlier today (28 September 2020) it seems that the Atlantic Salmon Trust's going rate for betrayal of Salmo Salar - the King of Fish - is £300,000 per year.
However, earlier this month the Scottish Government had a change of heart and disclosed more documents following an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner by Corin Smith.
Documents disclosed indicated that the project had been delayed until 2021 due to Coronavirus restrictions and the threat of "unacceptable financial losses":
Other documents disclosed stated that "AST negotiated assistance from Mowi for deployments this year and we would hope that arrangement can be rolled forward" and referred to further "industry assistance":
Other documents revealed that in June 2020 the AST and Fisheries Management Scotland (FMS) were on the hunt for more money with "potential private funders" in their sights.
Another email (redacted so it is impossible to know who sent it) refers to Mowi "proportionately contributing a lot":
Another email disclosed referred to the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) - the lobby group promoting the disease-ridden salmon farming industry - as playing a role in "over strategy and assurance of delivery":
Atlantic Salmon Traitors (aka @AST_Salmon) rake in £623K for a project tracking migration pathways of wild salmon from West coast rivershttps://t.co/IjtXRG70dw The $almafia have already paid £240K for the AST to turn a blind eye to lice-infested farmed salmon @ScotlandSalmonpic.twitter.com/ICYniDHueG
Mowi Scotland: "will be forced to take further action unless you co-operate with its requests & desist from further unauthorised access....no choice but to take steps to protect the Company’s Sites, and its rights in relation thereto, through the courts" https://t.co/TRIgbdBz1qpic.twitter.com/PNZpWmva3f
From: McSherry, Euan <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 6:50 PM Subject: Letter issued by email to Mr Don Staniford from Mowi Scotland Limited regarding unauthorised access at Ardnish Finfish Farm at Loch Ailort To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Our ref: 694168
Mr Don Staniford
Mowi Scotland Limited (the Company)
Unauthorised Access at Ardnish Finfish Farm at Loch Ailort
We act for the Company which operates a number of finfish farm sites throughout Scotland. We have had repeated cause, and have written to you, to ask you to cease your unauthorised incursions and activities at the Company’s fish farms and processing plants in Scotland. This email focuses on your unauthorised incursion at the Company’s finfish farm at Ardnish at Loch Ailort (the Ardnish Farm).
In each of our correspondences we requested that you refrain from taking unauthorised access to the Company’s farms for the reasons set out. The Company had hoped that you have ceased the activities complained of. However, this has not occurred. You attended the Ardnish Farm on 18 July 2020. You accessed the Ardnish Farm by kayak. You kayaked over the Company’s leased area of water and secured your kayak to the Company’s property. The property consists of a walkway surrounding feed trial pens and feed storage sheds (the Property). You accessed the walkway and walked over the Property. You filmed the Property in partial darkness.
Your incursion and activities occurred without obtaining the permission of the Company. You were unaccompanied by any Company site personnel which is a serious breach of the Company’s health and safety policy for working over water and visiting the Company’s fish farms (the H&S Policy). In order to reduce the risk of injury and to control a visitor’s safety, no visitor is allowed on the water at any of the Company’s fish farms without being accompanied by at least two qualified Company personnel. The following are further, serious breaches of the Company’s H&S Policy: you appear to be without a VHF radio contact or man down alarm in the event of an emergency; you are not wearing a thermal protection suit along with a Hybrid life jacket with 150 newtons auto inflation bladder with 50 newtons additional inherent buoyancy. Your actions are reckless and put you in danger of serious injury.
This incident has been reported to the police in line with the Company’s policy for responding to intruders.
As we stated in our earlier correspondences, the Company has legitimate and grave concerns about all unauthorised incursions and activities at its Sites as these contravene their biosecurity and health and safety policies and safe ways of working. All Company farms (whether aquatic or terrestrial) operated throughout Scotland need to ensure the highest standards of animal protection, and of staff and visitor health, safety and wellbeing. All visitors need to comply with site specific protocols in order to protect fish, visitors, staff and property.
The Company is concerned that your activities impact fish health and welfare; your own personal safety; staff health, safety and wellbeing; and property rights and obligations. These concerns apply not only to the Ardnish Farm, but to all the sites (the “Sites”) operated throughout Scotland by the Company. As well as the risk to fish health and welfare, the Company has duties to its staff, its regulators, the Crown Estate and the public to ensure that it prevents your potentially hazardous interference with the Company’s Sites. For those reasons, it will be forced to take further action unless you co-operate with its requests and desist from further unauthorised access at any of its properties and workplaces.
In the circumstances detailed above, and in order to protect fish, visitors, staff and property, the Company requires you to desist from taking any further unauthorised access to, or having any further unauthorised interaction with, the Sites and requests that you provide an undertaking to desist in the terms contained in the undernote to this letter.
If you refuse or delay to confirm your undertaking in these terms the Company will be left with no choice but to take steps to protect the Company’s Sites, and its rights in relation thereto, through the courts. No further warning will be given. We trust that will not be necessary and look forward to receiving the signed undertaking from you by no later than Friday, 25th September 2020.
Regards
EuanMcSherry Partner | Aberdein Considine
Undernote:
I, Don Staniford, hereby undertake to the Company, that neither I, nor any person instructed on my behalf, will access or interfere with the Company’s Sites, and for the avoidance of doubt neither I nor any person instructed on my behalf, will take, or cause to be taken on to the Company’s Sites, any equipment, vehicles, vessels, goods, gear or other apparatus without the express written consent of the Company.
Scottish Salmon Watch is seriously considering Mowi's legal threat.
In July 2020, Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's disease-ridden salmon farm in Loch Greshornish on the Isle of Skye.
And in July 2020, Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's disease-ridden salmon farm at Port Na Moine in Loch Craignish.
When we visited the same Mowi farm in September 2020 it was the same toxic salmon soup with containers of Formic acid and Hydrogen peroxide littering the shore of Loch Craignish.
When we kayaked out to Mowi's salmon farm at Port Na Moine in Loch Craignish in September 2o20 the farmed salmon looked anything but healthy.
Video Exclusive: drone footage of farmed fish being heated in a 'Thermolicer'. The Scottish salmon you see in supermarkets don't leap up waterfalls - they're crammed in lice-infested cages & then tortured in a cruel washing machine! https://t.co/tA2mlStYy4@MowiScotlandLtd
When Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's salmon farms at Gorsten in Loch Linnhe and Loch Ewe in November 2018 we nearly vomited from the stench of diseased salmon - with The Sunday Mail reporting on the "disease hell".
The same nauseating smell of diseased Mowi salmon permeated the air when Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's Loch Torridon farm in September 2020.
Not much had changed since we visited in November 2018.
Scottish Salmon Watch would like to visit other Mowi salmon farms to expose disease-ridden operations. The Daily Mail reported in January 2018 on mass mortalities at a Mowi salmon farm in Loch Erisort:
When Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's Kingairloch salmon farm in Loch a Choire in July 2020 we did not have time to board the farm but witnessed the factory farming operations.
Mowi is leaving a legacy of pollution, welfare abuse and environmental destruction across Scotland - not to mention a bad smell - and Scottish Salmon Watch will continue to publish video evidence.
Scottish Salmon Watch will not be intimidated by legal threats and will continue to shine a light on the deadly world of Mowi and other salmon farming companies operating in Scotland.
Sunday evening, Tobermory, The Magnificent 7 (yes, 7, not 6) Mowi guys off on a jolly. No social distancing and obv. not a "dry" boat! You can't see the beers the others were clutching. They must be in the same support bubble! pic.twitter.com/5dowZM6qtg
"Unauthorised visits to fish farms place employees and the animals they care for at risk and subjects them to unnecessary stress... Fish farm employees should be able to work without fear of abuse or harassment." https://t.co/PVad8EsjIW
— Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (@SSPOsays) November 2, 2019
MOWI are deluded if they think they own the surface of the sea and are able to exclude anyone from it. If the sharp litigator/reputation manager Mr McSherry needs confirmation of that he could ask his client’s owner Mr Jon Fredriksen, whose fleet of tankers sails the Seven Seas. https://t.co/8LmlSU1fN8pic.twitter.com/0Odk0FHC9D
New report by Skye & Wester Ross Fisheries Trust provides "further evidence that wild fish can be adversely affected by salmon farming operations several tens of kilometres away from the fish farms themselves" https://t.co/ilOEmQDgxspic.twitter.com/3DksYWRPxY
Formaldehyde is not a medication its a disenfectant used to try and kill fungus. When a fish farm uses formaldehyde every day for 8 months do you think its working. All i see is dustbins of dead fish taken away every day Sepa admit they cant monitor use at all, how can they ? pic.twitter.com/pf2bmnObCt
An investigation has been launched into conditions at an Argyll fish farm after footage emerged of dead and dying salmon floating in cages on a freshwater loch.https://t.co/WZTX93fdnL
Mass mortality data published earlier this month by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate makes for grim reading for the salmon farming sector - with 233 'Mortality Event Reports' already during the first six months of 2020 reporting 2.52 million dead farmed salmon due to Cardiomyopathy Syndrome, Pancreas Disease, Heart & Skeletal Muscle Inflammation, Fungus, Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis, viraemia, Moritella, Vibrio, Yersinia, Amoebic Gill Disease, physical damage and mechanical losses.
2.52 million dead farmed salmon in 233 'Mortality Events' during the first six months of 2020. This has been a catastrophic summer for Scotland's fish farms. Our seas are getting warmer. Expect more of this to come. Tens of thousands of these fish are killed by disease treatments https://t.co/NwCaDvhKG9
God forbid any tourists going down to the Dunvegan Harbour 🤢It’s grim. The smell is regularly overpowering. I am surprised that the Macleod’s Dunvegan offices up the road haven’t complained. Who knew they are adjacent to such morbid death.
Grieg Seafood reported Heart & Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (linked to Piscine Reovirus) to @marinescotland back in July. Jellyfish are being made scapegoats for virus-laden farmed salmon @GriegShetlandhttps://t.co/6koo3UKCKZ
When I filmed earlier this month (8 September 2020) at Landcatch's salmon hatchery at Ormsary, I was assaulted by the boss of Hendrix Genetics Scotland (Jarl van den Berg) who pushed me and attempted to grab my camera to stop filming.
The boss of Hendrix Genetics Scotland (owners of Landcatch) strongly objected to Scottish Salmon Watch filming in a public area and taking samples of salmon hatchery effluents being discharged onto a public beach on Loch Caolisport in Argyll.
Here's video footage shared with Police Scotland and Hendrix Genetics.
Scottish Salmon Watch asked Police Scotland to give the 29-year old a warning rather than file a formal complaint that may have led to an assault charge.
However Scottish Salmon Watch's polite request in 2018 for a formal site visit was refused leading to a night time visit in March 2019.
Perhaps Hendrix Genetics have unwanted pathogens, viruses and infectious diseases hiding in the waste effluents they are discharging into Loch Caolisport?
A front page exclusive by The National reported (31 May 2018):
Earlier this week (1 September 2020), the Scottish Government published a FOI reply which denied any knowledge of any trials of Imidacloprid since 2017.
Benchmark's FAI Aquaculture web-site refers to "the need to maximise the sustainability and minimise the environmental impact of the technologies, and practices we develop" but there is no mention of the use of the neonicotinoid insecticide Imidacloprid or the 'CleanTreat' system which was developed over a 10-year period at Ardtoe.
Scottish Salmon Watch strongly believes that there is a public interest in the disclosure of information on 'CleanTreat' including BMK08 (Ectosan).
In fact, it was only in March 2020 that Scottish Salmon Watch discovered that BMK08/Ectosan was the toxic neonicotinoid insecticide Imidacloprid (banned by the EU in 2018 for use in terrestrial agriculture).
This was reported via The Ferret, ENDS and other publications in March 2020:
Suffice to say that this controversial disclosure adds considerable weight to Scottish Salmon Watch's appeal.
Moreover, Scottish Salmon Watch further revealed in May 2020 (via a FOI disclosure by SEPA) that salmon farming giant Mowi in March 2020 had asked SEPA to support a field trial of Ectosan (re-named BMK08 in November 2019) in Loch Ailort:
In June 2020, Scottish Salmon Watch published scientific opposition to the use of Imidacloprid (which Benchmark proposes to use via the CleanTreat system):
Scottish Salmon Watch also published further details on the patents secured by Benchmark (information which we are not even sure that SEPA was in possession of):
The Sunday Times and BBC Radio featured the controversial issue in June 2020 and British Wildlife viewed the issue as such a public concern that they featured it in their Editorial in August 2020:
SEPA's refusal to disclose information on CleanTreat, BMK08, Ectosan and Imidacloprid is an affront to transparency and runs counter to their role as a publicly-funded watchdog for the environment. Scottish Salmon Watch believes that protecting the commercial interests of a Norwegian-funded industry at the expense of the Scottish environment is unacceptable and unreasonable.
It beggars belief that SEPA are placing the profits of Norway's 5th richest man (Johan Andresen - owner of Ferd Capital which controls Benchmark) before the Scottish environment and public accountability.
Scottish Salmon Watch asks the Scottish Information Commissioner to force the disclosure of information in the public interest. The considerable media coverage of the issue since March 2020 when it was publicly revealed that CleanTreat was a Trojan Horse designed to use a banned neonicotinoid insecticide is evidence enough.
Please force SEPA to protect the Scottish environment rather than protect the commercial interests of a Norwegian company wanting to keep secret documents detailing the use of a toxic neonicotinoid insecticide.
If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact me on 07771 541826.
From: Andrew Saunders <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 12:11 PM Subject: Official Sensitive: Response to Freedom of Information Request ATI0676 To: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Dear Don
Thank you for your email dated 03th September 2020.
Your Request
You asked for:
Please provide information on the use of Imidacloprid (publicly known as Ectosan from December 2017 to November 2019 and then marketed by Benchmark as BMK08) at the FAI Aquaculture marine laboratory in Ardtoe since October 2013. The FOI request with contextual information is attached here as a PDF and available online here.
Please therefore provide information including any licences, discharge consents, approvals, trials and any other documents relating to the use of Imidacloprid (Ectosan/BMK08) at Ardtoe since October 2013.
Scottish Salmon Watch would like to ascertain if any use of Imidacloprid (Ectosan/BMK08) by Benchmark - via their "10-year" development of CleanTreat at Ardtoe - has been officially approved by the Scottish Government, SEPA, the VMD or another authority.
Our Reply
As a general point, you should note that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives you an entitlement to information rather than documents and it is in this context that we have answered your request.
Please provide information on the use of Imidacloprid (publicly known as Ectosan from December 2017 to November 2019 and then marketed by Benchmark as BMK08) at the FAI Aquaculture marine laboratory in Ardtoe since October 2013. The FOI request with contextual information is attached here as a PDF and available online here.
Please therefore provide information including any licences, discharge consents, approvals, trials and any other documents relating to the use of Imidacloprid (Ectosan/BMK08) at Ardtoe since October 2013.
The VMD does not hold any recorded information in this area.
Scottish Salmon Watch would like to ascertain if any use of Imidacloprid (Ectosan/BMK08) by Benchmark - via their "10-year" development of CleanTreat at Ardtoe - has been officially approved by the Scottish Government, SEPA, the VMD or another authority.
To date, the use of imidacloprid (Ectosan/BMK08) by Benchmark - via their "10-year" development of CleanTreat at Ardtoe - has not been officially approved by the VMD. The VMD does not hold any recorded information in this area.
Information releasable to the public
In keeping with the spirit and effect of the FOIA and the government’s Transparency Agenda, we may place this request on GOV.UK, in due course. We will not place information identifying you on the GOV.UK website.
Copyright
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can be also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder.
Most documents produced by Defra will be protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be re-used under the Open Government Licence. For information about the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information please see The National Archives website.
Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information about obtaining permission from a third party see the Intellectual Property Office’s website.
Our Service
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint, you may request an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this e-mail. If you would like to request an internal review please write to the VMD via [email protected]. If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Thank you for your request, received by SEPA on 03/09/2020. Please see the enclosed response. Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing this response.
If you are not satisfied with our response below, you have 40 working days from the date of this letter to request a formal review from SEPA at:
Access to Information SEPA Strathallan House Castle Business Park Stirling FK9 4TZ Email: [email protected]
If you are still not satisfied, you can appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
From: Don Staniford<[email protected]> Date: Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 9:49 AM Subject: Review re. F:0192362 To: AccesstoInformation <[email protected]>
Could you please double check your records?
Your reply (5 October 2020) included:
Scottish Salmon Watch finds it difficult to understand how Benchmark can have conducted a decade of scientific research on CleanTreat - including the use of toxic chemicals such as Imidacloprid - at Ardtoe without having any authorisation or discussions with SEPA.
In the absence of any SEPA discharge consent to use Imidacloprid, can it be concluded that any use of Imidacloprid by Benchmark at Ardtoe was illegal?
Please consider this a formal request for a review of F:0192362.
Here's the latest lice infestation and mortality data published by Mowi Scotland (for all Mowi's faults they stand head and shoulders above other companies in terms of transparency of reporting lice and mortalities):
Last month, Mowi's Q2 2020 financial report was a dog's dinner for Scotland with infectious diseases and mortalities downgrading volume guidance by 8,000 tonnes.
Here's the worst mortality rates at most of Scotland's salmon farms during July 2020 (not all salmon farming companies - e.g. Kames - are members of the SSPO):