Bob Earll ‘The impacts of fish farm chemicals both near the farms and their effects further afield have been well known for 30 years. The organic waste contamination under the farms is well understood with reports dating back to the late 1980s documenting this. The effect of TBT on the wider marine life of sea lochs as it spread away from fish farms was also known after a number of shellfish aquaculture operations failed. That is one of the reasons it was banned from being used on fish farms in the late 1980s. There was no reason to suppose other chemicals stayed in the vicinity of the farms. Understanding why lots of organisations looked the other way for so long is harder to understand. Not a great backdrop to the desire to expand Scottish fish farming twofold.’
SEPA ‘Scottish salmon farm medicine significantly impacting local marine environments as SEPA unveils the conclusions of one of Scotland’s largest and most comprehensive marine research projects. Evidence-based proposals for a major shift in the regulatory regime.
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- Scottish salmon farm medicine significantly impacting local marine environments concludes SEPA research report, which increases the now substantial weight of scientific evidence that the existing approaches do not adequately protect marine life.
- SEPA announces firm, evidence-based proposals for a revised regime that will strengthen the regulation of the sector.
- New, tighter standard for the organic waste deposited by fish farms.
- More powerful modelling using the best available science, replacing 15 year old framework.
- Enhanced environmental monitoring and creation of new SEPA enforcement unit to ensure compliance is non-negotiable.
- New interim approach for controlling the use of Emamectin Benzoate, pending UK Technical Group recommendations to Scottish Government.
- New approach could allow for larger farms than traditionally approved, provided they are appropriately sited in sustainable locations.
- Scotland-wide consultation events across November and December.
Scottish salmon farm medicine is significantly impacting local marine environments. That is the conclusion of one of Scotland’s largest and most comprehensive marine research projects into aquaculture, undertaken by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
The survey, ‘Fish Farm Survey Report – Evaluation of a New Seabed Monitoring Approach to Investigate the Impacts of Marine Cage Fish Farms’, undertaken by specialist marine scientists using research vessel the Sir John Murray, examined environmental impacts from eight Scottish fish farms. 302 chemical samples were analysed from 93 sample stations and 296 ecological samples from 142 sample stations.
Samples for chemical analysis were analysed for the sea lice medicine Emamectin Benzoate (EmBz) and Teflubenzuron (Tef), last used in 2013. The medicines were detected in 98% and 46% of samples respectively, with residues more widely spread in the environment around fish farms than had previously been found. Moreover, the research concluded that the impacts of individual farms may not be contained to the vicinity of individual farms.
The research survey was published on Wednesday, 7th November as part of proposals by SEPA, one of a number of organisations regulating finfish aquaculture*, for a revised regime that will strengthen SEPA’s regulation of the sector. The proposals follow 16 months of work by the agency, including a 2017 consultation, and two Scottish Parliamentary committees, one of which concluded that “the status quo is not an option”, adding that the industry’s expansion goal “will be unsustainable and may cause irrecoverable damage to the environment” unless governance and practices are improved markedly. Scotland is the largest Atlantic salmon aquaculture producer in the European Union and third in the world after Norway and Chile. A contributing factor to this is Scotland’s reputation for a high quality environment and abundant freshwater resources.
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