"In order to protect anonymity, SEPA is unable to comment further" @TerryAHearn @ScottishEPA https://t.co/OT51wwp3rj
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) January 21, 2022
Was Terry on the take? #BrownPaperEnvelopes
Was Terry behind the cyberhack? #DarkWeb
Is Terry joining Anne Anderson working @ScotlandSalmon & @scotseafarms?
The news that Terry A'Hearn has quit as boss of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) leaves serious question marks hanging over Scotland's environmental lapdog.
Why did @TerryAHearn quit @ScottishEPA? https://t.co/jdUfmAitxh
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) January 21, 2022
"Following conduct allegations, Terry A’Hearn has stepped down and left his position. SEPA has a clear Code of Conduct and takes conduct allegations very seriously indeed"
BBC News reported yesterday (21 January 2022):
BBC News: "It is understood Mr A'Hearn left on Wednesday with immediate effect and with no financial settlement for not working his three-month notice period" @BBCNews @TerryAHearn @ScottishEPA https://t.co/hARBJV9yfk
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) January 21, 2022
The Times reported today (22 January 2022):
In truth, SEPA has been held to ransom by the Salmafia for decades. Back in 2013, two years before Terry A'Hearn became chief executive of SEPA, Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazine famously portrayed SEPA as a lapdog sitting on the lap on the chief executive of Scottish salmon farming lobby.
In 2013, lobbying from the Scottish salmon farming industry stopped data on numbers of mortalities being reported publicly as it was deemed "commercially damaging". The Sunday Herald reported in October 2013:
If you're looking for data on numbers of @rspcaassured dead farmed salmon in Scotland they don't exist - in 2013 @SSPOsays lobbied @ScottishEPA not to disclose mortalities as it was deemed commercially damaging! https://t.co/cDEyvS04dO @strathearnrose @salmon_scottish @scotgp pic.twitter.com/FICRbrpGXJ
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) September 2, 2020
In January 2015, a press release issued by SEPA announced the appointment of Terry A'Hearn as chief executive:
SEPA's culture of pandering to the Salmafia - just six foreign owned/controlled companies have a stranglehold over 99% of 'Scottish' salmon farming - became even more deeply rooted under the leadership of Terry A'Hearn. A Leader Comment published by The Sunday Herald in May 2017 branded SEPA a "poodle" which "seems more concerned to grease the wheels of industry":
The Sunday Herald reported in January 2017:
"Like a watchdog without bark or bite, SEPA is bending over backwards to accommodate the relentless expansion of salmon farming," I said in a press release in January 2017. "SEPA is cravenly kowtowing to the Scottish Government's reckless plan to double aquaculture by 2030. The answer to the industry's growing problems is blowing in the wind - decrease not increase production. Yet SEPA is deaf, blind and dumb to environmental concerns."
How SEPA has been wined and dined by the salmon farming lobby - as well as other industries - has been reported extensively by The Ferret. Here's an article by Rob Edwards in December 2017:
It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall in Terry A'Hearn's dinner meetings with the Salmafia in November 2015 and April 2016. What we do know - extracted via Freedom of Information and exposed by Rob Edwards at The Ferret and The Sunday Herald - provides a tantalising glimpse into how Scotland's environmental watchdog became lobotomized. The Ferret has reported on the scandal dubbed 'Slicegate' since 2017:
The front page of The Sunday Herald reported in February 2017:
The Sunday Herald's Leader Comment (26 February 2017) said that SEPA was "coming under fire again - for not doing its job":
The Ferret reported in March 2017:
The article by Rob Edwards included:
The Ferret reported earlier in March 2017:
For more background please read Slicegate: Anatomy & Chronology of an Environmental Lobotomy - How the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency was Sliced to death by the Scottish Government and salmon farming lobby.
Hollywood should look at the murky waters @ScottishEPA - which actor would play @TerryAHearn in the film? https://t.co/89oHFGDIRW
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) January 21, 2022
Anne Anderson's slap-up dinner and smoked salmon breakfast was so satisfying that she left SEPA to join the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation. The Ferret reported in September 2018:
Scottish Salmon Watch reported in March 2021:
How greenwashing works - Anne Anderson leaves @ScottishEPA in 2018 to join @SSPOsays (after being wined and dined by lobbyists https://t.co/PYSHIAfAcU) and now joins Norwegian salmon farming giant @scotseafarms @LeroySeafood https://t.co/WeEvq6Xe6m
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) March 29, 2021
Fish Farming Expert reported (29 March 2021):
Scottish Salmon Watch reported in April 2018:
Scottish Salmon Watch reported in April 2020:
Under the Cloak of #Coronavirus - SEPA open floodgates to lobster-killing chemicals! https://t.co/6AgXQXNlS2 @ScottishEPA Emamectin benzoate is so toxic to shellfish it should be banned not used at higher concentrations & at unlicensed sites @TerryAHearn @SSPOsays @marinescotland pic.twitter.com/4PVFfGl1NU
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) April 9, 2020
Under the guise of the Coronavirus crisis, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has opened the floodgates to the use of toxic chemicals (including the lobster-killing pesticide Emamectin benzoate which SEPA proposed to be banned back in 2016 before lobbying by the Scottish Government, salmon farmers and the chemical company Merck staved off a ban).
The Ferret reported (7 April 2020):
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has agreed to relax restrictions on the weight and duration of salmon in cages to help fish farms cope with #coronavirus staff shortages - but critics warn this will cause more pollution.https://t.co/qHtuhqSL0F
— The Ferret (@FerretScot) April 7, 2020
The Ferret reported in October 2020:
Discharges from fish farms of two sea lice pesticides known to harm marine wildlife rose in 2019, reversing declines in earlier years.https://t.co/O9ujdzd5lw
— The Ferret (@FerretScot) October 7, 2020
The Ferret reported in February 2021:
Moves by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to help the #salmon farming industry cope with #Brexit business losses are a "dereliction of duty", say campaigners.https://t.co/IoVSkN0pn5
— The Ferret (@FerretScot) February 3, 2021
SEPA should be renamed the Scottish Environment Pollution Agency @ScottishEPA @TerryAHearn
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) February 3, 2021
Shame on SEPA for allowing salmon farming to pollute with impunity! @ScotlandMowi @scotseafarms @salmon_scottish @GriegShetland @SSPOsays @HamishMacdonell https://t.co/ugc4X7psEV
As SEPA continues to allow salmon pharmers to pollute with impunity, it is clear that Scotland does not have a fit-for-purpose environmental watchdog.
Read more via:
Greenwashing by Scottish Salmon - as sponsored by SEPA!
Fish farm pollution rules relaxed for Brexit
Fury as fish farm pesticide pollution rises 72% in a year
Under the Cloak of Coronavirus: SEPA open the floodgates to lobster-killing chemicals!
6 green rules that have been relaxed in response to Covid-19
The Ferret: "Environmental rules for salmon farming industry relaxed"
SEPA relax environmental controls during Coronavirus crisis
Shame on SEPA the Laggard not Leader (even the sloths at SSPO are quicker at publishing data)!
ENDS Report: "Calls for greater transparency over ‘toxic’ new fish farm product"
Letter to SEPA: Please Come Clean on Imidacloprid!
Follow the Salmoney - the Norwegian tobacco billionaire behind the Neonicotinoid Imidacloprid
The Ferret: "Fish farm companies ‘bidding to use bee-harming pesticide’"
Revealed: Toxic Neonicotinoid Insecticide Used to 'CleanTreat' Lousy Salmon
Media Backgrounder: Chemically Embalmed Scottish Salmon
Sunday Times: "Official fears revealed over toxic threat of salmon trade"
Cleaning Tox-Sick Scottish Salmon
CleanTreat FOI Disclosures by the Scottish Government to Scottish Salmon Watch
The Sunday Times: "Chemical fears at Scots fish farms"
EXPOSED: Scottish Salmon's Cascading Use of Cancer-Causing Chemical
Salmon farming giant Mowi probed over chemical use
Leading fish farm watchdog joins fish farm industry
Fish farming industry bids to relax limits on toxic pesticide
All is Not Well With Sick Scottish Salmon
The Scottish Environment Pollution Agency
SEPA's Shame on Salmon Farming
How the Scottish Government ‘nuanced’ away fish farm pesticide ban
Pesticide report suppressed after freedom of information warning
Scottish Government under fire for helping block pesticide ban
Revealed: secret role of US drug company in fish farm pesticide row
Ban on polluting pesticide dropped after complaint from fish farmers
Mapped: the 45 lochs polluted by fish farm pesticides
The Sunday Times: "Salmon industry toxins soar by 1000 per cent"
Scottish Salmon's Lethal Legacy - Ten-fold Increase in Toxic Chemical Use in Ten Years
Scientific Backgrounder: Ecotoxicity & Chemical Resistance
Media Backgrounder: Scotland's 'Silent Spring' of the Sea
Daily Mail: "The toxic chemicals in farmed salmon straight from the loch"
Scottish Salmon Overdoses on Toxic Chemical
Scotland's Environmental Watchdog is Dead in the Water - read how @ScottishEPA was sliced to death by the Salmafia @ScotlandSalmon @MowiScotlandLtd @scotseafarms @marinescotland
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) January 22, 2022
Is @TerryAHearn now going to work for the salmon pharming lobby? https://t.co/sZLwL103qc @FerretScot pic.twitter.com/cw08a05rxZ