Happy New Year
As the New Year gets underway, the focus of fish farmers worldwide will no doubt be on producing healthy stocks and trying to keep costs down. Longer term, they will be looking for growth to meet increasing demand and to provide welcome employment in the areas they farm, whether that be remote rural locations in the Scottish Highlands, the vast freshwater expanses of African lakes, the seas off British Columbia, or the shrimp ponds of Andhra Pradesh.
In some of these thriving aquaculture centres, however, farmers’ attention will continue to be diverted in 2018 by those who would like to see their industry shut down.
While businesses on the north west coast of America seem to be under the most immediate threat, our own farmers in Scotland are anticipating a renewed onslaught of opposition from a small group in the angling community, ahead of a parliamentary inquiry in the spring. This will consider the environmental impact of the salmon farming, and industry representatives are eager to present their case and thereby defend the vital contribution the salmon sector makes to Scotland’s economy and to the livelihoods of thousands of ordinary working people.
We hope that all involved in this debate will approach it with open eyes and a determination to do what is best in the national interest.