Cleaner Fish - Dead in the Water at Lice-Infested Mowi Scotland!

Cleaner Fish - Dead in the Water at Lice-Infested @rspcaassured Mowi Scotland! https://t.co/ixqUarQb2I @MowiScotlandLtd @SRey_Planellas @fishfarmermag @scotseafarms @csar_ace @onekindtweet @APHAgovuk @SSPCA_Kirsteen #Boycott #Dirty #LiceInfested #Scottish #Salmon pic.twitter.com/ih9h9TdVTX
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) July 27, 2021

Fish Farmer reported (27 July 2021):

Scottish Salmon Watch shared recent video footage shot at Mowi's Poll Na Gille salmon farm with the authors of the studies cited above:

From: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 12:02 PM
Subject: Video of dead lumpfish at Mowi (Poll na Gille) salmon farm (17 July 2021)
To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, GarciaDeLeaniz C. <[email protected]>

Re: https://www.fishfarmermagazine.com/news/new-tool-should-improve-cleaner-fish-welfare/

Scottish Salmon Watch filmed at Mowi's Poll Na Gille salmon farm in the evening (ca. 6pm) on Saturday 17 July 2021 - we found over a dozen dead cleaner fish on the surface of one cage. Here's the raw video footage: https://vimeo.com/576372350

We also filmed licey lumpfish being fed on feed pellets at Mowi's 'Bay of the Dead Heads' salmon farmon 16 July 2021 - I can dig out that footage if you're interested.

Other video footage of cleaner fish dead at Mowi's 'Bay of the Dead Heads' salmon farm was published in July 2019: https://donstaniford.typepad.com/my-blog/2019/07/secret-filming-in-scotland-july-2019-.html

This led to Mowi being rapped by APHA for breaching welfare laws:

https://donstaniford.typepad.com/my-blog/2019/11/sunay-nationalferret-salmon-company-mowi-rapped-over-fish-welfare-after-700000-deaths-.html

https://donstaniford.typepad.com/my-blog/2020/04/censored-welfare-abuse-on-salmon-farms-.html

Best fishes,

Don

From: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 1:06 PM
Subject: Do lumpsuckers eat dead farmed salmon flesh?
To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, GarciaDeLeaniz C. <[email protected]>

Have you ever seen lumpsuckers eating the flesh of farmed salmon?

This video footage shot at Mowi's Poll Na Gille salmon farm on 17 July 2021 shows lumpsuckers foraging near a dead farmed salmon floating on the surface of a cage:

Video via: https://vimeo.com/576367798

The lumpsuckers could just be hiding in the dead salmon or eating any lice on the carcass but it seems as if they may be feasting on the flesh. Do you know if this has been reported?

Thanks,

Don

Read the two recent papers cited in today's Fish Farmer article via:

And:

The paper included:

Models and indicators are useful but there is no substitute for real life conditions captured by underwater surveillance shot inside salmon farms. When Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's Poll Na Gille salmon farm near Craobh Haven on 17 July 2021 we were shocked to find over a dozen dead lumpsucker 'cleaner fish' lying on the surface of one cage. You certainly don't need to be a mathematical modeller to work out that this is evidence of serious welfare abuse.

Dirty Rotten Salmon Farmers! Mowi's @rspcaassured salmon farm at Poll Na Gille near Oban is so lice-infested that 'cleaner fish' (lumpsuckers) are struggling to clean house https://t.co/orKMdiDAf4 @MowiScotlandLtd is dead in the water! @SSPOsays
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) July 27, 2021

Here's more video footage showing licey lumpsuckers at Mowi's 'Bay of the Dead Heads' salmon farm on 16 July 2021.

Here's a summary of video footage shot by Scottish Salmon Watch on 16 & 17 July 2021 at four Mowi salmon farms (SW Shuna, Port Na Cro, Poll Na Gille and Bay of the Dead Heads):

Here's video footage of a lice-infested farmed salmon swimming with what looks like a shoal of baby wild herring inside Mowi's Poll Na Gille salmon farm on 17 July 2021 - are there simply too many lice for the 'cleaner fish' to keep the parasites under control?

Scottish Salmon Watch filmed serious welfare problems in lumpsucker 'cleaner fish' at RSPCA Assured Mowi's 'Bay of the Dead Heads' salmon farm in July 2019.

A Scottish Government Fish Health Inspectorate report in June 2019 confirmed welfare and mortality problems:

A Fish Health report for @MowiScotlandLtd's Bagh Dail nan Ceann salmon farm in June 2019 cited Amoebic Gill Disease in farmed salmon & craters disease in lumpfish. "Issues with mortality increasing with the warmer weather" said @marinescotland https://t.co/UrevkN6lSm @SSPOsays pic.twitter.com/m45QKPtQHs
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) August 21, 2019

A welfare complaint filed with the Animal & Plant Health Agency and Marine Scotland led to Mowi being rapped for welfare failures. The Ferret & Sunday National reported in November 2019:

In April 2020, Scottish Salmon Watch published the letter from APHA to Mowi detailing welfare failures.

Censored: Welfare Abuse on Salmon Farms - redacted FOI documents reveal welfare breaches of Animal Health & Welfare Act @rspcaassured @MowiScotlandLtd https://t.co/oJ5ad7XxZw @APHAgovuk @marinescotland @ProfCMDwyer @SSPCA_Mike @SSPOsays @ChrisGPackham @markruskell @scotgp pic.twitter.com/7Fr5ANyTC4
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) April 23, 2020

In August 2018, Scottish Salmon Watch filmed serious lice infestation of lumpsucker 'cleaner fish' at Scottish Sea Farms in Loch Spelve (a salmon farm certified as welfare-friendly via RSPCA Assured):

When Scottish Salmon Watch filmed at a processing plant at South Shian operated by Scottish Sea Farms in September 2018 we were shocked to discover dead lumpsuckers: