A Freedom of Information disclosure by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (8 December 2022) sheds more light on the 'toxic' and 'explosive' feed barge which sank off Portree at Bakkafrost's salmon farm during Storm Arwen in November 2021.
The FOI disclosure - which includes 57 documents - including various risk assessments of the 'Toxic Threat Zone' off Portree:
Read in full via Vanderpers Risk Assessment uncontrolled gas release 16 August 2022
Download in full via Vanderpers Risk Assessment Seamate feed barge break up and purging 16 August 2022
Download report in full via Marine Masters Salmon Feeder Barge Gas Purging
Download in full via Notice to Mariners 5 Aug 2022
Download in full via Briggs Barge Salvage - Portree H2S RA 2 August 2022
Download in full via Briggs Barge Salvage - Emergency Escape plans Rev1.0 5 August 2022
Download in full via Briggs Barge Salvage - Portree Oil Gas and Feed Discharge and Removal MS 7 August 2022
Download report in full via Briggs Barge Salvage - Portree Rescue party method statements 9 August 2022
Download via Briggs Seamate response plan
Download in full via online here
Download in full via Letter to Scottish Ministers from $camon $cotland 18 November 2022
The MCA's FOI disclosure (8 December 2022) included various emails (presented in chronological order below - oldest first):
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: 27 November 2021 17:
To: [email protected]; HQ_CounterPollution <[email protected]>;
MEIR.MEIR <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected];
Public Relations <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; HQ_SOSRep <[email protected]>;
CounterPollution <[email protected]>; ROW <[email protected]>;
██████████████████@HIGHLAND.GOV.UK; [email protected]; Navwarnings
<[email protected]>
Subject: POLREP / 041746 / PORTREE / FIREST AND FINAL
A. CONFIRMED
B. 271025 UTC NOV / OBSERVED BY SCOTTISH SALMON COMPANY AGENT C. 57 25.077N 006 09.309W
ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF PORTREE HARBOUR, POLLUTION IS FLOATING PLASTIC BOXES AND FISHFARM
PIPE, NO FUEL POLLUTION AT THIS TIME.
D. LW 1830 2.0M HW 2811 01.03 3.8M WIND 30-40 MPH E. WEATHER VIS GOOD, SEA STATE 3-5
METER SWELL.
F QUANTITY OF 15 1X1 M PLASTIC BOXES, MULTIPLE LENGTHS UP TO 100M OF FISHFARM PIPE AND 2
LIFE RINGS MARKED PORTREE BARGE G. PORTREE FISH FARM BARGE BELONGING TO SCOTTISH SALMON
COMPANY SUNK IN POSITION 57 25.077N 006 09.309W DURING STORM.
H. POLLUTER IDENTIFIED
J. VESSEL SUBMERGED.
K. SCOTTISH SALMON COMPANY SHORE TEAMS GATHERING WASHED UP DEBRIS. DIVERS ARRIVING TO
ASSESS 28.11.21 EARLY MORNING WITH INTENTION TO REFLOAT VESSEL.
L. ESTIMATE PLASTICS WILL WASH TO SHORE OVER COMING DAYS.
M.
N. POLLUTER CONFIRMED IN INCIDENT AS THE INFORMANT.
From: ██████████
Sent: 28 November 2021 13:22
To: ████████████
Cc: ████████████; ██████████████
Subject: FW: POLREP / 041746 / PORTREE / FIREST AND FINAL
Afternoon ████,
Who would have thought that a fish farm barge would sink in poor weather!
Here is another to add to the list with some updated information.
I spoke to the owner today and he is awaiting confirmation from the divers that the integrity of the hull
has been maintained. As is sank on it's moorings, there is nothing to suggest otherwise. The vessel is
currently in 36mtrs of water.
A team have been out and gathered the plastic pollution that came from the barge (boxes and pipe) and
they believe that they have gathered most if not all of it.
The fuel tank which is bunded and contained 2500ltrs of diesel is intact and any breathers have been
isolated.
There were also two plastic bunded tanks which contained 1000ltrs of diesel each. These are also intact.
Lastly there was 50ltrs of hydraulic oil in sealed containers.
There is no evidence of pollution on the surface and efforts to recover the fuel/oil will commence this
week once a full assessment is done.
It may take longer to recover the vessel due to it's size and the location.
Many thanks,
████
██████████
████████████████████
Counter Pollution & Salvage Officer
(Scottish Mainland)
████████████████████
Counter Pollution & Salvage
██████████@mcga.gov.uk
HM Coastguard
Marine House, Blaikies Quay,
Aberdeen, AB11 5EZ
To Search, To Rescue, To Save
www.gov.uk/mca
From: ████████████████ <████████████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Sent: 30 November 2021 15:29
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: Example barge
CAUTION: This email originated from outside the UK Government. Do not click links or open attachments
unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. Please use the Report Message function to
report suspicious messages.
Hi
Example cut away of Seamate 400
████████
████████████████
Engineering Manager (North)
1 Marybank Industrial Estate,
Stornoway
Isle of Lewis,
HS2 0DB
Tel: ████████████████████
██████████████
www.scottishsalmon.com
From: ████████████ <████████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Sent: 30 November 2021 10:10
To: ██████████ <██████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████
████████ <██████████████@scottishsalmon.com>; ██████████ <██████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Cc: HQ_SOSRep <[email protected]>; HQ_CounterPollution
<[email protected]>; [email protected]
Subject: RE: Portree feed barge incident
████/All
██████████ our Head of Engineering will head up the salvage operation from our end and will send out
any updates going forward.
At the moment we have recovered all the shore line debris, 1 fuel cube (still full of fuel) and the external
generator from the sea bed. Focus now moves to recovering the fuel from the internal fuel tank, which
we hope to complete this week.
We have also been liaising with our insurance company on the salvage operation itself, but this will take
some time to get in place.
As things stand, we see no danger to shipping and the barge is secure within our site boundaries.
All fish pens and nets have been checked and remain secure and fully operational.
Regards
████
████████████
Head of Production (North)
8A Lisigarry Place,
Portree
Isle of Skye,
IV51 9BD
Tel: ██████████████████
██████████████
████████████
www.scottishsalmon.com
From: ██████████████
Sent: 30 November 2021 06:59
To: '██████████████'
Cc: HQ_SOSRep; HQ_CounterPollution
Subject: RE: Portree feed barge incident
Good morning ████████,
Apologies for the delayed response, I was off last week.
Thank you for the notification of your incident. I appreciate the weather has been pretty
horrendous over the weekend, but do you have an update on the barge and your
intentions to recover?
Kind Regards,
████
██████████████, Deputy to the SOSREP
Direct: ████████████
Mobile: ████████████
Email: ██████████████@mcga.gov.uk
From: ████████████
Sent: 01 December 2021 10:49
To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Cc: ██████████████; ██████████
Subject: FW: Portree feed barge incident
Dear all
Please see the update in the email thread below. In summary hydrocarbons and other
pollutants accessible by divers will be removed in the next few days. The approx.
350tonnes of feed onboard will be sealed into the silos and dealt with at a later time
when the barge is lifted (salvors are being consulted at this time) – which is likely to be
March 2022 when cages will be fallow. Given the depth and tidal flows in the area any
leeching of nutrients is likely to be distributed over a relatively wide area in very small
quantities.
The barge reportedly sank on its moorings, and has impacted the seabed substrate
(reportedly sand/mud) at an angle and is submerged approx. 800mm. The following
images give you an indication of what the barge looked like before it sank – construction
is largely concrete.
If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards
████
████████████
████████████████████
Environmental Scientist Lead
██████████████████
Counter Pollution & Salvage Policy
████████████@mcga.gov.uk
HM Coastguard
Spring Place, 105 Commercial |Road
Southampton, SO15 1EG
To Search, To Rescue, To Save
www.gov.uk/mca
From: ██████████████ <██████████████@aon.co.uk>
Sent: 06 December 2021 16:26
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Cc: ██████████████ <██████████████@aon.co.uk>; ████████████████ <█████████████████@aon.co.uk>
Subject: Portree
Hi ██████
Assuming the PL policy is the right home noting loss circumstances the policy defines clean up as;
means the cost of Remediation incurred by the Insured (or for which it is legally liable) as required by
any Enforcing Authority but shall not include the costs of achieving any improvement or alteration in the
condition of the land the atmosphere or any watercourse or body of water beyond that required under
any relevant and applicable law or statutory enactment at the time Remediation commences It shall
include the costs reasonably and necessarily incurred by the Insured or for which it is legally liable to
curtail or minimise Pollution or Contamination once it has occurred to prevent further harm being
caused but only to the extent required by any Enforcing Authority
I would emphasise required by and therefore your ability to evidence this point.
Cheers
██████
██████████████ | BA ACII CIP
Executive Director & Client Partner
Aon
60 York Street | Glasgow | G2 8JX
m ████████████████████
██████████████@aon.co.uk
From: ██████████ <██████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Sent: Monday, December 6, 2021 5:02 pm
To: ██████████; ██████████████
Subject: FW: Portree
CAUTION: This email originated from outside the UK Government. Do not click links or open attachments
unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. Please use the Report Message function to
report suspicious messages.
████ ████
I take it when the feed breaks down if there is any leakage of marine oils from the feed this would
constitute pollution and we are required by an enforcing authority to contain and remove the
contamination? Feel free to call me if required. The feed has started to show signs of breaking down and
I have arranged for an environmental response vessel to mitigate any leaks before we seal the barge.
But the cost is significant and we are just checking with our insurance see below email from them.
I know this is probably a daft question sorry.
Regards
██████
██████████
Head of Engineering
Tel: ████████████████████
██████████████
██████████████
www.scottishsalmon.com
shop.scottishsalmon.com
From: ██████████████
Sent: 07 December 2021 13:23
To: ██████████████; ████████████████
Cc: ████████████; ██████████████
Subject: Fish Farm Barges
Good afternoon,
Hope you are both well.
I wondered if either / both of you would be free in the new year for a chat to discuss fish
farm barges.
We appear to have had four of these sink off Scotland in the last couple of years, with
not only complexities surrounding the recovery of the barge itself (does / should it fall
under the Wreck Removal Convention?), but the recovery of pollutants, oil, debris and
feed.
██████ you may recall we exchanged some emails on this during the first incident
involving these barges and I think (if memory serves me correctly), once the barge has
been ‘installed’ in its place, then it doesn’t fall under the definition of a vessel? However,
I believe they do fall under MARPOL?
As we have had four of these now, I would just like to check with yourselves if this is
something we should look into further, or not as the case may be.
Kind Regards,
██████
██████████████, Deputy to the SOSREP
Direct: ████████████
Mobile: ████████████
Email: ██████████████@mcga.gov.uk
From: ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Sent: 07 December 2021 13:58
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ████████████████ <████████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Cc: ████████████ <████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: RE: Fish Farm Barges
Hi ████
I agree it would be useful to meet and discuss this issue a bit further. The industry has
now really expanded the use of these barges. As they get older combined with the sites
now being located in more exposed locations, I suspect the problem will only get worse.
Happy to join.
Kind regards
From: ████████████████ <████████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Sent: 07 December 2021 14:16
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Cc: ████████████ <████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: RE: Fish Farm Barges
Sounds a plan, we are dealing with a fatality on our MOWI farm, totally appalling levels
of safety, COPFS are going to prosecute for us.
████████████████
██████████████████████
Head of The Regulatory Compliance Investigations Team
██████████████████
Office of the Chairman & Chief Executive
████████████████@mcga.gov.uk
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
Bay 3/12
105 Commercial Road
Southampton
SO15 1EG
Safer Lives, Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas
www.gov.uk/mca
From: ██████████████
Sent: 07 December 2021 14:26
To: ████████████████; ██████████████
Cc: ████████████; ██████████████
Subject: RE: Fish Farm Barges
Appreciate the quick responses.
I wasn’t aware of your case – sounds awful.
I’ll put a meeting in the diary for January.
██
From: ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Sent: 07 December 2021 12:01
To: '██████████' <██████████@scottishsalmon.com>; ██████████ <██████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Cc: ████████████ <████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; HQ_SOSRep <[email protected]>;
'[email protected]' <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Portree
Good morning ██████,
Thank you for taking my call.
As discussed, you mentioned that the feed had been seen by the divers as leaking from
the barge and there is now a ‘film’ on the sea surface.
We appreciate the efforts that have been made so far to mitigate any environmental
impact. It was expected the feed would start to decompose and begin to leech into the
marine environment, but obviously we weren’t sure exactly when this would happen. As
you have advised there is now a ‘film’ on the sea surface, this would seem to suggest
there is a higher level of nutrient in the water column, which is one of the concerns the
environmental agencies had. I have copied into this email Marine Scotland, who are the
Chair of the Scottish Environment Group so they are aware of this update.
You have advised that it is still your intention to seal the feed silos, whilst continuing to
look at full barge recovery. Recognising the weather warnings in place for the next 24
hours, and the time of year, it’s is expected the sealing of the silos could take a few
days / weeks due to safety concerns.
You advised you were in direct contact with SEPA who are due to get back to you
regarding any regulatory instruction in terms of feed recovery / removal to assist with
the insurance question noted below.
You also advised Briggs Marine had developed a pollution response plan. If you would
be able to send myself and those in copy, a copy of this plan, we will be able to provide
you with any further advice and / or seek any clarification. If you are also able to send a
copy of any images of the ‘film’ on the surface, that would be appreciated. Once you
start to develop the recovery of the barge, please ensure those copied into your updates
are kept appraised, so we can monitor the progress and pose any questions.
████/████, it would be helpful if an updated POLREP could be issued by HMCG to alert
the relevant stakeholders to this change in situation. Please ensure they include Craig
on this email distribution.
I hope this helps Craig, but please feel free to give me a call if you have questions or
require further clarification from either myself, the MCA or the Environment Group.
Kind Regards,
████
██████████████, Deputy to the SOSREP
Direct: ████████████
Mobile: ████████████
Email: ██████████████@mcga.gov.uk
From: ████████████ <████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Sent: 07 December 2021 13:57
To: ██████████ <██████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Cc: HQ_SOSRep <[email protected]>; '[email protected]'
<[email protected]>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ████████████
<████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████
<██████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: RE: Portree
██████
Appreciate the updates we have been receiving.
In relation to the update below it would be useful to have a little more detail on the
reported surface pollution:
I note the reference to the feed degrading and the fuel cell remaining unrecovered – has
there been any signs of pollution other than ‘film’? What is meant by a film – is this a
thin sheen colour or a film of feed dust/particles? Any signs of hydrocarbon release (fuel
or lub oil)?
What is the extent of coverage and the position it is centred on (presume it is
immediately above the feed barge, but if surfacing some distance away it would be
useful to have the location of where any pollution is being observed)? Is the film seen to
be persistent and/or constantly surfacing? It would be useful to understand the context
of the weather on scene – is it a relatively sheltered site or would you have expected the
weather to be breaking up the surface contamination?
It would be extremely useful to have access to any images of the surface pollution and
any captured of the wreck itself.
Now that there have been a number of visits to the site, in addition to the Briggs
pollution plan, I would be grateful if you could share any plans you have now developed
in terms of recovery of the feed and barge – is it still your intention to seal the barge
silos and lift the barge with the feed still held in the barge, or are there any intentions to
deal with the feed separately to the barge lift? If the feed is to be recovered from the
barge ahead of the lift I would be grateful for details of the methodology and outline of
how the waste feed will be handled/disposed.
Kind Regards
████
████████████
████████████████████
Environmental Scientist Lead
██████████████████
Counter Pollution & Salvage Policy
████████████@mcga.gov.uk
HM Coastguard
Spring Place, 105 Commercial |Road
Southampton, SO15 1EG
To Search, To Rescue, To Save
www.gov.uk/mca
From: ██████████ <██████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Sent: 07 December 2021 15:23
To: ████████████
Cc: HQ_SOSRep; '[email protected]'; ██████████████; ████████████; ██████████████; ████████; ████████████; ████████████; ██████████; ████████████; ████████████
Subject: RE: Portree
Attachments: Seamate response plan.pdf
CAUTION: This email originated from outside the UK Government. Do not click links or open attachments
unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. Please use the Report Message function to
report suspicious messages.
Good Afternoon ████,
The term film was from me the site team have indicated they are starting to see the oil from the feed
surfacing See below photos of the release. On the first picture you can see the release coming from the
feed silo and in the second faintly. This appears to be coming from one feed silo only at present. There
are no photos from the surface as no one is on site due to the weather. They have said they will send
these through ASAP once they get back out to site. The fuel cube I believe is still down at the vessel
mainly due to the weather. I will update on that when they have recovered the fuel cube. The divers saw
no leakage from that when they located it. There is no sign of hydrocarbons (fuel &Oil)
Pictures of the other silos no signs of any release as yet
I am still waiting on the video footage from both leco and Briggs and have requested this once again
today.
The obsevations were directly above the site so far. The weather was fairly calm when this was observed
so it will be good to see what they find tomorrow onsite.
In terms of plans
The intention is for the Forth constructor which is now in harbour in the Kyle of lochlash to be loaded
with equipment to attend site and start the process of sealing the barge. They are in the process of
fabricating the blanking plates and will be sealing the barge as soon as they can.
I have attached the environmental response plan we have received from briggs and I have raised this
internally in SSC for sign off. If we are required to action this plan we will do immediately.
We also have 3 options which are being discussed and prepared for tender by 2 potential interested
parties, Green Marine and Briggs Marine. We are working in conjunction with our insurance providers
on this and I have indicated I would like the tender pack out this week with a return and presentation
made next week with a view to award the contract.
Option 1 to stop any further feed oil being released, Mobilise the plan to lift the barge as soon as
practicable. (fish stock welfare needs to be considered)
Option 2 monitor and plan to remove the barge in March / April If possible
Option 3 plan the removal of the feed, look to recover the barge in March / April
My current preference would be to seal the barge as planned then lift the barge out of the water and
take it to a facility to have the barge assessed and waste feed etc removed to reduce the risks associated
with onsite removal.
Regards
██████
██████████
Head of Engineering
Tel: ████████████████████
████████████
████████████
www.scottishsalmon.com
shop.scottishsalmon.com
From: ██████████████ (Corporate Communications) <██████████████@highland.gov.uk> on behalf
of Emergency Planning <[email protected]>
Sent: 07 December 2021 09:21
To: ████████████
Cc: ██████████████ (Corporate Communications)
Subject: RE: Portree Barge Incident Update 6/12/2021
Thanks ████. Just confirming Highland Council is receiving your updates, and the information is being
passed to local staff. No questions at present.
Kind regards,
████
██████████████
Resilience Officer
Tel. ████████████
Mob. ████████████
Email. ██████████████@highland.gov.uk
From: ██████████ <██████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Sent: 12 May 2022 09:57
To: ██████████; ████████████@mcga.gov.uk; ██████████████@mcga.gov.uk; ██████████@gov.scot;
██████████@mcga.gov.uk; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; ████████████@crownestatescotland.com; [email protected];
████████@nlb.org.uk; [email protected]; ██████████████[email protected];
██████████@briggsenvironmental.com; ████████████; ████████████; ██████████████; ██████████; ██████████████; ████████████[email protected]; ██████████████[email protected];
████████████████@highland.gov.uk
Cc: ██████████████; ██████████████; ████████████; ████████████; ████████████; ██████████████
Subject: Barge Recovery Presentation by Briggs Marine
When: 25 May 2022 10:30-12:00 (UTC+00:00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London.
Where:
All
As per previous email Here is the invite to join the meeting to allow us to share our plan for the
recovery of the Feed barge. I hope you can all attend?
Many Thanks
██████
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From: ████████████ <████████████@scottishsalmon.com>
Sent: 30 August 2022 09:37
Subject: Notice to Mariners Issue 30/08/2022
CAUTION: This email was sent from outside of the organisation. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
recognise the sender and know the content is safe.
Hi,
Please find attached a Notice to Mariners issued today, 30/08/2022.
Kind regards,
██████
████████████
Site Development Manager
Ardkinglas Estate,
Cairndow
Argyll,
PA26 8BH
Tel: ████████████████████
██████████████
██████████████
www.scottishsalmon.com
shop.scottishsalmon.com
From: ██████████ (Performance and Resources) <██████████@highland.gov.uk>
Sent: 30 August 2022 10:16
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: FW: Notice to Mariners Issue 30/08/2022
Hi ████
Thanks for the chat earlier.
Latest NoM iisued today, just in case you’re not on the circulation list.
Best Regards
██████████
Harbours Manager
Highland Council
Harbours HQ
Lochinver Harbour
IV27 4LE
████████████
████████████
From: ██████████ (Performance and Resources) <██████████@highland.gov.uk>
Sent: 30 August 2022 10:16
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: FW: Notice to Mariners Issue 30/08/2022
Hi ████
Thanks for the chat earlier.
Latest NoM iisued today, just in case you’re not on the circulation list.
Best Regards
██████████
Harbours Manager
Highland Council
Harbours HQ
Lochinver Harbour
IV27 4LE
████████████
████████████
From: ██████████████
Sent: 02 September 2022 09:46
To: ██████████
Subject: FW: Notice to Mariners Issue 30/08/2022
Attachments: 220830_BFS_Notice to Mariners_Portree.pdf
Hi ████,
This is the updated NTM – in place until 15/9.
██
From: ██████████ <██████████@bakkafrost.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2022 8:58:07 AM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; ████████████@crownestatescotland.com
<████████████@crownestatescotland.com>; ██████████████ <██████████████@highland.gov.uk>;
██████ <██████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ████████████ <████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <████████████@bakkafrost.com>; Dundee fire serviceHQ
<[email protected]>; ██████████@mcga.gov.uk <██████████@mcga.gov.uk>;
[email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected]
<[email protected]>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>;
████████████@highland.gov.uk <████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ████████████
<████████████@nlb.org.uk>; ██████████████@mcga.gov.uk <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>;
[email protected] <[email protected]>; ████████████@mcga.gov.uk
<████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ████████████ <████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████
<██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ████████████ <████████████@bakkafrost.com>; ████████@nlb.org.uk
<████████@nlb.org.uk>; ████ <████████████@firescotland.gov.uk>; ██████████@gov.scot
<██████████@gov.scot>; ██████████████ <██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ████
<██████████@highland.gov.uk>; ████████████████@highland.gov.uk
<████████████████@highland.gov.uk>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; ██████████,
██████ <████████████████@firescotland.gov.uk>; ████████████████ <██████████████@firescotland.gov.uk>;
████████████████ <████████████████@firescotland.gov.uk>; ████████████████
<██████████████@firescotland.gov.uk>; ██████████████████ <████@consultingmarinechemist.nl>; ██████████████ <██████████████@bakkafrost.com>; ████████████@scotland.pnn.police.uk
<████████████@scotland.pnn.police.uk>; ██████████████@scotland.pnn.police.uk
<██████████████@scotland.pnn.police.uk>; ██████████████@nhs.scot <██████████████@nhs.scot>;
██████████████████@highland.gov.uk <██████████████████@highland.gov.uk>;
██████████████@highland.gov.uk <██████████████@highland.gov.uk>;
██████████████@scotland.police.uk <██████████████@scotland.police.uk>; ████████████████
<████████████████@scotland.police.uk>; ██████████████ <████████████@firescotland.gov.uk>; ██████████████ (Property and Facilities Management) <████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ████████████████ (Planning and Environment) <████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ████████████████ <██████████@marinemasters.nl>;
████████████████@firescotland.gov.uk <████████████████@firescotland.gov.uk>
Cc: ████████████████ <████████████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@nhs.scot>;
██████████████ (NHS HIGHLAND) <████████████@nhs.scot>; ████████████ (Environmental and Amenity
Services) <████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@nhs.scot>; ██████████████ <██████████████@scotland.police.uk>; ████████████ (Environmental and Amenity Services)
<████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ██████████████ (Resilience) <██████████████@sepa.org.uk>; ████████████ (Environmental and Amenity Services) <████████████@highland.gov.uk>;
[email protected] <[email protected]>; ██████████████@gov.scot
<██████████████@gov.scot>; ██████████████ (NHS Highland) <██████████████@nhs.scot>; ██████████████ (Policy and Reform) <████████████@highland.gov.uk>; ██████████ (NHS Highland)
<██████████████@nhs.scot>; ██████████ <██████████@mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████
<██████████@crownestatescotland.com>; ████████████ <████████████@crownestatescotland.com>;
██████████████████@gov.scot <██████████████████@gov.scot>; ██████████████
<██████████████@mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: Portree Barge Gas Venting plan :update
All,
I’m pleased to say that the team onsite have managed to complete the hose connections quicker than
anticipated. And the Bakkanes will move into venting position early this morning. After all the
connections are checked and reading taken the venting operation will commence as long as the wind
direction is favourable. We will send an further notification when we start.
Many Thanks
From: ██████████ <██████████@bakkafrost.com>
Sent: 11 September 2022 12:57
To: [email protected]; ██████████@crownestatescotland.com; ██████████████; ██████; ████
████████; ████████████; Dundee fire serviceHQ; ██████████; HQ_CounterPollution; HQ_SOSRep; ██████████████; ██████████████@highland.gov.uk; ████████████; ██████████████; [email protected]; ████████████; ██████████████; ██████████████; ████████████; ████████; █████; ██████████@gov.scot; ██████████████; ████; ████████████████@highland.gov.uk; [email protected]; ██████████,██████; ████████,
██████; ████████, ████████; ████████,██████ 2;██████████████████; ██████████████;
████████████@scotland.pnn.police.uk; ██████████████@scotland.pnn.police.uk; ██████████████@nhs.scot;
██████████████████@highland.gov.uk; ██████████████@highland.gov.uk;
██████████████@scotland.police.uk; ████████████████; ██████████████; ██████████ (Property and Facilities
Management); ████████████ (Planning and Environment); ████████████████;
██████████████@firescotland.gov.uk
Cc: ████████████████; ██████████████; HIGHLAND, Hpt (NHS HIGHLAND); ████████████ (Environmental
and Amenity Services); ██████████████; ████████████████; ████████████ (Environmental and Amenity
Services); ██████████████; ████████████ (Environmental and Amenity Services);
[email protected]; ██████████████@gov.scot; ██████████████ (NHS Highland); ████████████
(Policy and Reform); ██████████ (NHS Highland); ██████████; ██████████; ████████████;
██████████████████@gov.scot; ██████████████
Subject: Re: Portree Barge Gas Venting plan :update
CAUTION: This email originated from outside the UK Government. Do not click links or open attachments
unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. Please use the Report Message function to
report suspicious messages.
All
We expect the venting process to start around 14:30 today. I will update on progress on Monday or if
anything changes
Regards
██████
Best regards / Vinarliga
██████
████████████
Head of Engineering
Tel: ████████████████████
██████████████
██████████████
www.scottishsalmon.com
shop.scottishsalmon.com
From: ██████████████ <[email protected]>
Sent: 18 November 2022 09:29
To: [email protected]
Cc: Public Relations; Info Line; ██████████████[email protected]; ██████████████ (Councillor); ██████
██████ (Councillor); ████████████ (Councillor); ████████████████ (Councillor);
[email protected]; [email protected]; SAR Response; Media;
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
██████████████@mca.gov.uk; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; ████████ (████), MSP;
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; HQ_CounterPollution; HQ_SOSRep; [email protected]
Subject: Letter to Scottish Ministers re. "explosive" feed barge off Portree
Attachments: Letter to Scottish Ministers 18 November 2022.pdf
CAUTION: This email originated from outside the UK Government. Do not click links or open attachments
unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. Please use the Report Message function to
report suspicious messages.
Please find attached a letter to Scottish Ministers.
The letter can also be downloaded online here
It's also online via: Letter to Scottish Ministers re. "Explosive" Scottish Salmon - Please Defuse the Toxic
Time-Bomb!
And via Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheGAAIA/status/1593536063930339329
More details in yesterday's Times newspaper via:
The Times: "Secret plans to evacuate island homes over toxic gas"
Read more via:
Risk Assessment Highlighted 'High' Risk of Exposure to Public from Toxic Hydrogen Sulphide Gases - Why
the f*ck was there no public warning?
Bakkafrost is Dead in Water in Scotland - "Explosive" FOI Disclosure Lifts Lid on Hazardous Scottish
Salmon!
Document dump by Scottish Government following FOI review: floodgates opened on "explosive"
salmon barge off Portree!
"Explosive" FOI disclosure from SEPA on Toxic Gases Spewing from The Scottish Salmon Company
(Bakkafrost) Off Portree!
Toxic Salmon Barge Salvaged This Month Off Portree (as revealed by FOI disclosure by the Maritime &
Coastguard Agency)
Thanks,
██████████████
$camon $cotland
Read more via:
Mowi's "totally appalling levels of safety, COPFS are going to prosecute" (says Maritime & Coastguard Agency in FOI disclosure)
Update: Toxic Feed Barge Salvaged Off Portree Heading to Loch Carron & then Ardyne!
ADDENDUM:
Stan,
As a follow up to the FOI disclosure, could you please provide an update on discussions re. feed barge safety?
I refer specifically to:
From: ██████████████
Sent: 07 December 2021 14:26
To: ████████████████; ██████████████
Cc: ████████████; ██████████████
Subject: RE: Fish Farm Barges
Appreciate the quick responses.
I wasn’t aware of your case – sounds awful.
I’ll put a meeting in the diary for January.
██
From: ████████████████ <████████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Sent: 07 December 2021 14:16
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Cc: ████████████ <████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: RE: Fish Farm Barges
Sounds a plan, we are dealing with a fatality on our MOWI farm, totally appalling levels
of safety, COPFS are going to prosecute for us.
████████████████
██████████████████████
Head of The Regulatory Compliance Investigations Team
██████████████████
Office of the Chairman & Chief Executive
████████████████@
mcga.gov.uk Maritime and Coastguard Agency
Bay 3/12
105 Commercial Road
Southampton
SO15 1EG
Safer Lives, Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas
www.gov.uk/mca
From: ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Sent: 07 December 2021 13:58
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>; ████████████████ <████████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Cc: ████████████ <████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: RE: Fish Farm Barges
Hi ████
I agree it would be useful to meet and discuss this issue a bit further. The industry has
now really expanded the use of these barges. As they get older combined with the sites
now being located in more exposed locations, I suspect the problem will only get worse.
Happy to join.
Kind regards
██████
From: ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Sent: 07 December 2021 13:23
To: ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>; ████████████████ <████████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Cc: ████████████ <████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>; ██████████████ <██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk>
Subject: Fish Farm Barges
Good afternoon,
Hope you are both well.
I wondered if either / both of you would be free in the new year for a chat to discuss fish
farm barges.
We appear to have had four of these sink off Scotland in the last couple of years, with
not only complexities surrounding the recovery of the barge itself (does / should it fall
under the Wreck Removal Convention?), but the recovery of pollutants, oil, debris and
feed.
Fraser you may recall we exchanged some emails on this during the first incident
involving these barges and I think (if memory serves me correctly), once the barge has
been ‘installed’ in its place, then it doesn’t fall under the definition of a vessel? However,
I believe they do fall under MARPOL?
As we have had four of these now, I would just like to check with yourselves if this is
something we should look into further, or not as the case may be.
Kind Regards,
████
██████████████, Deputy to the SOSREP
Direct: ████████████
Mobile: ████████████
Email: ██████████████@
mcga.gov.uk
Please provide information relating to the January 2022 meeting/discussion and any further discussions on fish farm barges in terms of safety, sinking, prosecutions and problems.
Please consider this a formal FOI request under the relevant FOI and Environmental Information regulations.
Thanks,
Don Staniford
Director, $camon $cotland
