Salmon farming faces orchestrated campaign by ‘extreme activists’, MSPs told

“Extreme activists” have been accused of conducting a “deliberate, orchestrated and co-ordinated campaign” against Scotland’s salmon farming industry.

Tavish Scott, chief executive of industry body Salmon Scotland, was speaking after campaigners at Animal Equality UK said they had filmed “huge numbers” of dead fish being removed from a salmon farm just hours before a visit by MSPs.

They said the footage was filmed shortly before a fact-finding visit last week by members of the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Islands Committee to the Scottish Sea Farms site at Dunstaffnage, near Oban.

Animal Equality UK claimed: “Those visiting were not made aware that the fish had been removed from the water that same morning.”

Dr Ralph Bickerdike, the head of fish health at Scottish Sea Farms, told MSPs on Wednesday there “was categorically no mass mortality event” at the site, saying staff had been filmed carrying out the routine removal of dead fish.

Mr Scott dismissed Animal Equality UK’s claims as being part of a “deliberate, orchestrated and co-ordinated campaign by anti-salmon farming extreme activists”.

With the Holyrood committee currently carrying out an inquiry into salmon farming in Scotland, he added: “This is an obvious and deliberate attempt to derail this committee’s focus on what has changed in Scotland’s salmon farming sector since 2018.”

He went on to claim those involved with the aquaculture sector could be “assailed with abuse and intimidatory tactics from extreme activists”, adding: “Our people, our men and women who work in our companies and our extensive supply chain businesses from Unst in the north all the way down to the south of Scotland should not have to put up with this behaviour.

“These people would not just shut down Scotland’s salmon farming sector, but they would shut down farming as well.”

Mr Scott noted regulators at the Fish Health Inspectorate had written to the committee in the aftermath of Animal Equality UK’s claims, saying they do “not have concerns with the routine  mortality removal procedure being undertaken in the video footage”.

Dr Bickerdike said the video had shown the “daily routine procedure of removal of mortalities which we do everyday, when possible, for each of the net enclosures on that farm”.

He insisted: “There was no attempt whatsoever to cover up, there was no special treatment for the visit. We do this as routine every day.

“Any such claims which have been made by the anti-fish farming campaigners was incorrect and misleading for sensationalist reporting by media organisations.”

He said the number of dead fish found in pens of farmed salmon can “vary from day to day and between pens, based on a variety of factors”.

But he said for the pen captured in the video, there were 250 dead fish recovered that day, with fewer fish being removed from the site’s other pens.

He added the total mortality rate for fish on the day of the visit was “0.1% of the farm population of 448,509 fish”.

Dr Bickerdike added the mortality rate for last week had been 0.29%, which he said was “well below the 1% threshold” for notifying the Fish Health Inspectorate.

“Therefore there was categorically no mass mortality event,” he told MSPs.

The comments came as Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said “misinformation” was reported last week ahead of the MSPs’ visit.

She added: “The misrepresentation of some of these issues shows a real lack of understanding of some of these operations.”

Ms Gougeon went on to highlight the importance of Scotland’s salmon farming sector in providing thousands of “well paid jobs in some of the most rural communities in Scotland and in our island communities too”.

She added: “It is really important to recognise the significant economic contribution our fish farming sector makes to our rural economy and Scotland’s economy more widely.”

Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, said: “Can it truly be considered radical to question the sustainability of an industry that saw over 16 million animals dying on farms last year? Or to wonder why the death of hundreds of fish didn’t even meet official reporting thresholds?

“Based on evidence given today, it’s crystal clear that the industry continues to struggle with many of the same challenges it faced back in 2018 and is totally unprepared for the worsening effects of climate change too.

“We trust the committee will continue to thoroughly examine these critical issues, now that the real full facts have been provided – the Scottish public deserves accountability and honest answers.”