Politicians must act to end damage to environment caused by salmon farms

Congratulations to your Environment Correspondent Ilona Amos for her well-researched article on salmon farms based on the report of parliament’s environment, climate change and land reform committee (“MSPS call for salmon farms to green up”, The Scotsman, 6 March).

The picture contrasts sharply with that painted by Jim Gallagher, managing director of Scottish Fish Farms, entitled “Salmon sector in healthy state” (The Scotsman, 5 March) describing salmon farming as “a jewel in Scotland’s crown”. Nothing could be further from the truth – unless commercial profit is the only criterion.

For more than 20 years the impact of farming on the Scottish marine and freshwater environments has been known. Likewise, the socioeconomic damage to inshore and rural fishing-dependent communities. Anglers were first to raise the alarm but concerns are now far wider.

Underneath every salmon cage is a growing blanket of sewage lethal to life on the seabed. Caged salmon act as incubators for viral diseases and parasites (sea lice) which are fatally transmitted to what’s left of the wild salmon and sea trout populations. Efforts to control these infections using chemical “medicines” have failed, serving only to add to the toxins in salmon flesh.

The experiment of introducing lice-eating wrasse seems unlikely to succeed in the scale required and is now under attack on grounds of depleting the wild wrasse population. Additional problems include wholesale fish deaths, escapes and predator control.

The public are mostly unaware of the issues. The predominantly foreign-owned salmon farming industry has done its best to suppress and deny the facts. The government has turned a deaf ear while failing to effectively regulate the industry.

Every year new farms are established in our inshore waters. The stated aim of the industry is to increase production to 400,000 tonnes by 2030 – a truly appalling prospect. If ever there was an industry requiring close public scrutiny and unbiased government regulation and supervision it is this one.

The marine environment will continue to deteriorate until salmon cages are removed.

There are alternatives. Salmon can be successfully reared in land-based containers – totally eliminating the problems of pollution, parasitic salmon disease, fish escapes and predator control.

Is it not time that politicians justified their environmental claims? (PROF) VAUGHAN RUCKLEY

Blackbarony Road, Edinburgh