Fish farms hit back under intense scrutiny
West Coast salmon farms have hit back at a charity’s ‘wake-up call’ report claiming to highlight the ‘best and worst’ for animal welfare in Scotland last year.
The industry is facing intense scrutiny in 2018, as MSPs on the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee conduct an inquiry into the environmental impact of Atlantic salmon farming in Scotland.
It concluded in March: ‘The committee is deeply concerned that the development and growth of the sector is taking place without a full understanding of the environmental impacts.’
Now animal welfare charity OneKind has released a report which, it says, ‘collates publicly available data on mortalities, escapes, biomass exceedance, seal shooting and sea lice burdens for the 184 active salmon farms operating in Scotland in 2017 and allocates “negative welfare” scores for each category.
A spokesperson for OneKind said: ‘The highest scoring farms were Poll na Gille in Argyll and Bute, MacLean’s Nose in the Highlands, Bagh dail nan Cean in Argyll and Bute, all of which are Marine Harvest farms, and Vuia Beag in Eilean Siar, which is owned by the Scottish Salmon Company.
‘The report also looked at the performance of companies and allocated Loch Duart Ltd, which has 10 seawater salmon farms in Scotland, the highest average “negative welfare” score in the areas studied, with Marine Harvest in second place and the Scottish Salmon Company in third.
‘Poll na Gille in Argyll and Bute was also highlighted for breaching biomass limits set by SEPA six times in 2017.’
Marine Harvest, the Scottish Salmon Company and Loch Duart all responded through the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO).
Julie Hesketh-Laird, chief executive of the SSPO, said: ‘Our members work tirelessly to ensure salmon is reared in a sustainable manner to high welfare standards.
‘Fish health and maintaining a high quality and diverse environment in which fish are raised are of paramount importance and underpin the success of salmon farming businesses and the jobs they support.
‘Working in nature inevitably means that farmers deal with, as part of their regular routine, environmental challenges which occur naturally and predators which can cause significant damage and harm the welfare of farmraised salmon.
‘The salmon farming sector continues to invest significantly in innovation and R&D in partnership with the private and academic sectors as well as with government and regulators.
‘Not all of the key indicators chosen by OneKind accurately reflect the care taken at farms to ensure good animal welfare. For example, overall fish biomass is not a relevant indicator as all our members’ farms are committed to a comfortable stocking density for salmon – each net pen containing about two per cent fish and 98 per cent water at maximum density allowing salmon to shoal naturally.
‘Aquaculture is a tightly regulated food production sector with a strong requirement for transparency.’