Bob Earll: Background SAMS have produced a report on the impact of salmon farming in Scotland (click here to download this). [Jayne the report is in February] The Scottish Government is undertaking a consultation on fish farming – comments due on the 8^th February. This report is the backdrop to substantial increase – doubling – in the industry by 2030. The Salmon Aquaculture Reform Network Scotland (SARNS) have organised a petition and are raising awareness of the environmental impacts of the industry and further afield. More wrasse from the south-west! 

The Salmon Aquaculture Reform Network Scotland (SARNS)

The Scottish Government must act now to clean up Scotland’s salmon farming industry before allowing it to expand. Many jobs and much of Scotland’s iconic wildlife depend on the health of our sea lochs and coastal waters.

Please sign this petition now and respond to the consultation by the 8th of February (explained within the petition) as the government is now inviting views from the public on the issues covered in a new report and the environmental interaction of salmon farming within the wider marine environment.

Why is this important?

• Scotland’s seas are home to incredible wildlife, including wild salmon and sea trout, porpoises, dolphins, whales and seals and are home to a wealth of life on the seabed, including valuable crab, prawn and lobster fisheries. They are under threat because of the harmful impacts of open net salmon farming.
• A truly sustainable coastal economy can regenerate around many uses of restored seas and fisheries. Jobs are precious in rural areas. By allowing one industry to pollute the sea, we threaten jobs that use the sea sustainably, such as well-managed fisheries and wildlife tourism. By protecting them the coastal economy can thrive, long term.

These are the main problems the Scottish Government must tackle:

• Parasitic sea lice, thriving in overcrowded open net salmon pens, are driving wild salmon and sea trout numbers to dangerously low levels.
• Toxic chemicals designed to kill these sea lice now exceed safe levels in at least 45 Scottish sea lochs, and studies implicate them in harm to crustaceans and other forms of marine life far from the farm cages.
• A reported 130 salmon farms on Scotland’s west coast have fitted Acoustic Deterrent Devices (ADDs) to their nets, to scare away seals with loud underwater noises. These ADDs also affect porpoises, dolphins and whales, even though it is illegal to disturb them. They can also cause hearing damage to these echo-locating animals, whose hearing is as important to them as eye-sight is to us. And if the ADDs don’t work, the government issues licences for fish farmers to shoot so called ‘rogue’ seals.
• Now the industry, with the government’s support, wants to speed up the issuing of permits for new farms, so that it can double its annual production to around 300,000 tonnes of salmon by 2030.

The environmental impacts of half that many salmon are already bad enough, so if you care about the health of our marine environment and are concerned about the devastating impact of salmon farming please act now.

LET’S TELL THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT THAT SALMON FARMERS MUST CLEAN UP THEIR ACT BEFORE THEY ARE ALLOWED TO EXPAND.’

Go to the petition