Fish farm advocate has vested interests

Dr Martin Jaffa from Manchester (Letters, February 20) stoutly defends the Scottish farmed salmon industry’s environmental credentials and in particular is keen to counter the assertion that commercial farming has deleterious effects upon wild stocks of fish, crustaceans, shellfish and so on.

I’d like to ask him some questions such as, was his third paragraph supposed to make scientifically explained sense, because it did not? Would he be so kind as to furnish us with the name of the ‘study from Ireland’ so that we can weigh up the quality of science for ourselves?

Could he tell us what the foul smell at the outflow of salmon hatcheries is? Or what the weight of salmon faeces released into the sea from one growing cycle, smolt to finished article, of a 2,500-tonne salmon farm is? And does he have any interests to declare on the subject of fish farming?

On googling him, I discover: ‘Dr Martin Jaffa is a passionate advocate of aquaculture, especially with regard to the promotion of market-led strategies. He firmly believes that farming must take over from the wild catch as the principal sources of fish and seafood, whilst at the same time arguing that the industry must produce what consumers actually want. Dr Jaffa has over 35 years’ experience of the industry, the last 15 as the head of the aquaculture-based marketing company, Callander McDowell.’

Additionally, I note that Dr Jaffa is recommending that we should read a book entitled Loch Maree’s Missing Sea Trout. I looked for this book online only to discover it was written by none other than Dr Martin Jaffa himself. A pithy read full of fresh and juicy revelations no doubt! Vested interests everywhere, it would seem.

Peter Isaacson, Coll.