Below, the Salmon & Trout Association Scotland is naming the farms and showing Scottish Ministers and MSPs why they need to require full disclosure by law from the salmon farmers of sea-lice data. In doing so, it is demanding that Scottish Government stop protecting salmon farmers from proper scrutiny.
In advance of the Stage 3 debate on the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill on Wednesday 15th May in the Scottish Parliament, the S&TAS has again shown the Scottish Government why it needs to require publication of weekly sea-lice count data, relating to each salmon farm in Scotland by law:
- by amending the current Bill
- by using existing powers in the Aquaculture Act 2007
- by publishing a list of Scottish salmon farms that the Scottish Government’s own Fish Health Inspectorate has noted as breaching sea-lice thresholds.
The S&TAS viewed with disappointment the failure, at Stage 2, of the Committee of MSPs examining the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill to agree amendments tabled by Alex Fergusson MSP. These would have required the publication of farm-specific sea-lice data relating to each and every salmon farm in Scotland, bringing Scotland into line with Ireland and Norway.
The S&TAS understands that an amendment to the Bill to require publication of sea-lice data on a Farm Management Area basis may still be laid for Stage 3.
While, in the view of the S&TAS this is not sufficient, it is a far better position than the Scottish Government’s stated preference for voluntary publication of aggregated data by the industry, a system that will hide the key evidence as to which fish-farms have sea-lice problems.
Guy Linley-Adams, Solicitor to the S&TA Aquaculture Campaign says: ‘The Bill currently before the Scottish Parliament is a litmus test of the Government’s attitude to wild fish conservation. If the Minister does not require fish-farms to publish weekly sea-lice count data by law, he will be missing an opportunity to protect and conserve Scotland wild fish heritage.
‘The key question for both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament is which is more important – the supposed confidential interests of the fish-farmers or the public right to know what is being released by the salmon-farmers into the wider environment potentially causing huge damage to wild fish conservation?’
Why is this important?
The negative impact of sea-lice, produced in huge numbers by fish-farms, on wild salmonids (salmon and sea-trout) is widely accepted by fisheries scientists, including the Scottish Government’s own Marine Scotland Science.
In Ireland, the Government of Ireland’s agency, Inland Fisheries Ireland, is crystal-clear as to where the problem lies: ‘…the presence of salmon farms has been shown to significantly increase the level of sea lice infestation in sea trout in Ireland, Scotland and Norway. These lice infestations have been shown to follow the development of marine salmon aquaculture…. [Ed: our emphasis]
‘Studies from Ireland, Scotland and Norway have shown that in bays where salmon farming takes place the vast majority of sea lice originate from salmon farms……’
The S&TAS has produced a summary of recent research into the impacts of salmon farming on wild fish.
Sea lice proliferate on the hundreds of thousands of farmed fish per fish-farm and the adult females release vast numbers of juvenile sea lice into the surrounding sea lochs – where wild sea-trout and salmon smolts (juvenile fish, only a few centimetres in length) are emigrating to sea for the first time. While a few sea-lice on a large adult fish are not a problem, even a light infestation on fragile juvenile smolts will be fatal.
Most importantly, there is clear evidence that both wild salmon and sea-trout are in decline in Scotland’s ‘aquaculture zone’, whereas, generally, populations have stabilized on the east and north coasts where there is no fish-farming.
What do we know about Scottish salmon farms and the sea-lice problem?
Currently, although the large fish-farm companies are required to collect and record weekly sea-lice count data at each of their farms (including the number of adult female lice found per farmed fish, which is a surrogate measure for the production of juvenile lice) – they are not required by law to publish this data, nor submit it to the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI).
Nevertheless, using EU law on public access to environmental information, the S&TAS has over the last two years obtained all reports of inspections carried out by the FHI of Scottish salmon farms.
Many, although by no means all of those inspections, record whether, at the time that records were inspected, those records showed that the farms were either within or had breached the thresholds for sea lice numbers on farmed fish, as laid down in the industry’s own Code of Good Practice.
The thresholds within the Code of Good Practice are not sufficiently protective to ensure that juvenile sea-lice emanating from the fish farms do not damage wild fish – a view agreed with by Marine Scotland Science the Government’s fisheries scientists.
Nevertheless, the FHI reports covering inspections between January 2011 and December 2012 show that at 67 of these inspected farms – the named fish-farms listed in Annex A – sea-lice had been recorded above Code of Good Practice thresholds.
There is clearly a problem here. The S&TAS believes that the public and those interested in wild fish conservation should have a legal right to know the extent of that problem.
What we are not allowed to know about lice problems on farms
What the list highlights is that, unless weekly farm-specific sea-lice count data is published by the fish-farms, the public cannot know:
- when exactly were sea-lice numbers on each salmon farm too hig
- whether this occurred at the time of the wild smolt run and could have harmed wild fish
- by how much the salmon-farms listed below breached Code of Practice thresholds
- for how long (days or weeks or even months) were lice levels too high
- whether and how lice levels fluctuated through the 2-year farmed fish growing cycle
- whether the lice were dealt with quickly or not by the fish-farmers concerned
- what the implications might be for wild fish conservation and management
Salmon Farms in breach of industry code of good practice on sea lice infestation
The following farms – a far from insignificant number – were noted during Fish Health Inspectorate inspections in 2011 and 2012 as having breached Code of Good practice thresholds of sea-lice during the period for which records were inspected:
North Moine, Lakeland Marine Farms Limited
Ardessie B, Wester Ross Fisheries Limited
Ardessie A, Wester Ross Fisheries Limited
Oldany, Loch Duart Limited
Loch Laxford, Loch Duart Limited
Bagh Dail Nan Cean, Lakeland Marine Farm Limited
Slocka Ronas Voe, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Trilleachan Mor, The Scottish Salmon Company
West Scotasay, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Loch Carnan, Loch Duart Limited
Lismore A, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Ardgadden, The Scottish Salmon Company Limited
Strondoir Bay, The Scottish Salmon Company Limited
Corry, Wester Ross Fisheries Limited
Ardessie A, Wester Ross Fisheries Limited
Ardmaddy, Lakeland Marine Farms Limited
Geasgill, The Scottish Salmon Company Limited
Holms Geo, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Inch Kenneth, The Scottish Salmon Company Limited
Lippie Geo, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Loch Tuath, The Scottish Salmon Company Limited
North Havra, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
North Papa, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
North Uiskevagh, The Scottish Salmon Company
Papa, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Score Holms, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Tanera, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Teisti Geo, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Torridon, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
West of Berwick, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Wick of Belmont, Lakeland Unst Limited
Papa, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
North Papa, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Collafirth 2, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Collafirth 3, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Bornio, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Geo of Valladale, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Bight of Foraness, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Fish Holm, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Hogan, Hoganess Salmon Limited
Shuna Castle, Kames Fish Farming Limited
Ardmaddy, Lakeland Marine Farms Limited
Bagh Dail Nan Cean, Lakeland Marine Farms Limited
Port Na Cro, Lakeland Marine Farms Limited
Badcall Bay, Loch Duart Limited
Calva Bay, Loch Duart Limited
Sgheir Bhuidhe, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
North Shire, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Camas Glas, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Glencripesdale, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Invasion Bay, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Scallastle, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Vidlin North, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Lamlash, The Scottish Salmon Company
Fish Holm, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Ardmair, Wester Ross Fisheries Limited
Loch Duich, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Loch Alsh, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Ardmuir, Lakeland Marine Farms Limited
Vuia Beag, The Scottish Salmon Company
West Loch Tarbert, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Vacasay, The Scottish Salmon Company
Taranish, The Scottish Salmon Company
Arbhair, Lewis Salmon Limited
Ardnish, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Limited
Cole Deep, Hjaltland Sea Farms Limited
Spelve A, Scottish Sea Farms Limited
Background information
Referring to sea-lice, Douglas Sinclair of SEPA told the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs Climate Change and Environment Committee that this is ‘one of the few areas in the Scottish environment in which someone can be doing something that can significantly impact on someone else’s interests and there is no public access to what is going on … if someone lives downwind of smoking chimneys on a factory and they want to find out what is in the smoke, they can find out from us—from the published record. Fish farming in Scotland is the one omission. For all sorts of reasons, it ought to be sorted out and the information ought to be published.’ Official Report, Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee, 5 December 2012; c 1431.
All local authorities with responsibility for marine aquaculture supported farm-level publication of sea-lice data during the consultation for the Bill.
Andrew Graham-Stewart, Salmon & Trout Association, Scotland
Note: Marine Scotland Science (2013) Summary of information relating to impacts of sea lice from fish farms on Scottish sea trout and salmon – 4th April 2013
Inland Fisheries Ireland (2013) Factsheet on the Impact of Salmon Farms on Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Stocks. S&TA (2013) Recent research and findings on the impact of salmon aquaculture on wild salmonids.