Salmon farms have caused grave damage to marine environment of Scotland

Nikos Steiropoulos eulogises the work of salmon farms and asks us to “get behind them” (Scotsman 200, 15 August). He is managing director of a company which is aligned to aquaculture.

I wonder how many readers, other than those with a vested interest, would share his view?

Surely not communities of Scotland’s West coast, islands and river watersheds, who have seen their migratory fish (sea trout and salmon) populations – on which for centuries, they and their local and visit- ing fishermen, myself included, have depended – destroyed by disease spread from salmon farms.

Nor the inshore fishermen whose livelihoods are jeopardised as the sea bed is smothered by sewage pouring off fish cages.

Nor the marine biologists who have documented the degraded ecology of the sea bed adjacent to salmon farms, and have also monitored the undisputable lethal effects of salmon parasites on migrating juvenile wild populations.

Nor the biochemists who have reported comparisons of the levels of toxic chemicals in the flesh of farmed salmon, compared to wild fish.

Nor the bird lovers who have seen seabird populations decline as trawlers Hoover up the small fish and creatures at the bottom of the marine food chain for conversion to fish meal fed to caged salmon.

Nor the tourist agencies whose coastal environments are degraded.

One could go on. Scientists have reported the escalating damage to the aquatic environment for decades. Politicians have turned collective blind eyes. The media seem disinterested.

Salmon, because they are crowded into cages, act as culture media for parasites and piscine infectious diseases. Mr Steiropoulos acknowledges concerns about fish health and the growth in resistance to “medicines” (shades of antibiotic misuse in humans).

Clearly chemical control has failed. His “biological controls”, ie louse-eating fish, are interesting but unproven in terms of durability and commercial scale. Meanwhile the invasion of formerly pristine Scottish waters by farms grows apace.

These drawbacks can be avoided by the on-land container culture of salmon, techniques that are being pioneered in several countries, including the UK.

They need major investment. Left to themselves the predominantly foreign owned companies that have been allowed access to Scottish waters have little incentive to develop alternatives. One can begin to agree with Mr Steiropoulos that “the future is bright” when politicians start taking their environmental responsibilities seriously and when the companies making vast profits from aquaculture start taking their salmon out of Scottish waters and isolate them in on-land sites, thereby offering our gravely traumatised marine environment some chance of recovery.

VAUGHAN RUCKLEY Blackbarony Road, Edinburgh