A missing and crucial link
It was quite interesting to observe the juxtaposition of two articles on salmon in The Oban Times. A piece on MOWI seeking an injunction against a prominent anti-salmon feedlot campaigner who has extensive knowledge of the environmental impact of the industry in Scotland and Western Canada. Then an article on a £1.1million study into the drop in wild salmon numbers and ‘salmon interactions’, and penalties for escapes.
The salmon farming impact is particularly devastating on the west of Scotland. Salmon are in decline for several reasons at sea, but the catastrophic decline on the West Coast has been going on longer and is directly attributable to the location and impact of salmon farms. This is not unique, as Canada and Chile’s experience and the many science papers produced confirm. Chile has thrown them out, and native Americans in Canada have taken back control of their waters where possible and removed Atlantic Salmon farms so native Pacific species can return without the introduced infective diseases.
It is easy to knock an industry which by and large is a good employer but whose clout with government is huge due to the economic benefit. That it also sponsors sporting events and other
good causes makes it all the harder to condemn.
The parallels with a previous time should not be lost. We cleared people for sheep and with rose-tinted glasses we now look on a devastated, over-grazed landscape as normal yet talk about rewilding, planting trees, and a greener future.
Salmon farming indirectly closed many bag net stations, ruined once abundant rivers such as the Awe/Orchy system and many once productive spate rivers. Ghillies and fishermen, hotel and boatmen jobs went too. I would argue more jobs lost than gained and less money in local economies as companies take their profits elsewhere.
Two articles in The Oban Times but a missing and crucial link to wild salmon decline. Wild
salmon in west coast rivers and their migrating offspring and natal sea trout are in trouble where there are salmon farms inshore or offshore on migration routes. The presumption of harm by river owners, crown estate and councils in the north and east of Scotland and most of England and Wales where there are no salmon farms, show more stable wild salmon and sea trout populations, hence categorised as level one by Marine Scotland. Virtually the whole of the West of Scotland wild salmon population is level three ‘at risk’ or level two ‘under threat’.
It appears we humans do not have the hazelnut of wisdom to save the keeper of knowledge.
David Gunn, by email