Rob Edwards

Company under fire for fish farm island “bribes”

from Sunday Herald, 01 April 2012

A foreign multinational has been accused of offering “bribes” to Scottish islanders to coax them into agreeing a controversial plan for the first commercial fish farm in their waters.

Norwegian-owned Marine Harvest has promised to give the 120 residents of Colonsay, to the north of Islay, £50,000 up front and £10,000 a year thereafter if they vote for 12 salmon cages to be moored 1,500 metres off their east coast.

Islanders are deeply divided on the issue, with some worried about the environmental dangers and other anxious for new jobs. They are due to vote on the plan in a referendum later this year, and the company has promised to abide by the outcome.

People on different sides of the argument, canvassed by the Sunday Herald last week, all agreed that the result of the referendum was “too close to call”. And they accepted that, whichever way it goes, it would be a crucial turning point for Colonsay.

One of the most ardent of opponents is 60-year-old Mike McNicholl, who retired yesterday as owner of the local shop. The cash on offer was undoubtedly “a bribe”, he said, aimed at winning support for an initial development that would later expand.

Scottish boats under fire for fishing far from home

from Sunday Herald, 29 January 2012

Scottish fishing boats are under fire for trawling seas far from home for catches of tuna, shark, swordfish, mackerel and sardines.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that at least five vessels registered in Scotland have been licensed to fish as far afield as the Indian Ocean and off the northwest African coast.

Along with boats from elsewhere in Europe, they are facing criticisms that they are plundering foreign seas, damaging local fishing industries and threatening fish stocks.

As fish stocks in European waters have declined, big fishing businesses have increasingly searched further afield for more lucrative and less depleted waters. Scottish fishermen, already in straightened circumstances, are also keen to exploit foreign waters in order to keep operating.

According to a new study for the conservation group, WWF, a third of the world’s ocean surface is now being heavily fished, ten times more than in the 1950s.

Over 700 vessels from European Union (EU) countries are now exploiting seas outwith the EU, mostly from Spain, France and Portugal. But they also include nine vessels registered in the UK, five of them in Scotland.

Revealed: the toxic pesticides that pollute our lochs

from Sunday Herald, 20 November 2011

They look like pristine, unpolluted beauty spots - but in fact they are contaminated with toxic pesticides.

The sea lochs that line Scotland’s north west coast, famed for their natural splendour, are polluted by poisonous chemicals used by fish farms, surveys by the Scottish government’s green watchdog have revealed.

The sediments in nine sea lochs – all those surveyed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) – have been found to contain detectable levels of pesticides widely used to kill the sea lice that eat caged salmon.

Although Sepa stresses that the levels are mostly low, environmentalists, anglers and creel fishers condemn the contamination as unacceptable. And they claim that the chemicals could be damaging marine wildlife.

Sepa has released the results of its latest surveys of sea lochs for four pesticides: teflubenzuron, diflubenzuron, emamectin and ivermectin. They are all chemical compounds for treating salmon infested with sea lice, though land managers can also use them.

Traces of emamectin were found in sediment at all nine lochs tested in 2008 and 2009, including Loch Linnhe, Loch Ewe, Loch Nevis, Loch Fyne and lochs around Skye, Mull and the Summer Isles. Teflubenzuron was found at six lochs, and diflubenzuron at four (see table below).

Prizes for polluting fish farm under fire

from Sunday Herald, 30 October 2011

A Highland salmon farm that was granted £630,000 of taxpayers’ money, given an environmental prize and labelled as a “freedom food” producer has been accused of lice infestation and pollution in breach of official guidelines.

Wester Ross Fisheries near Ullapool is under investigation by government and voluntary agencies following complaints from a local landowner, Jenny Scobie of the Rhidorroch Estate. She says that sea lice from caged salmon are contaminating wild fish and damaging angling on the River Ullapool, which flows through her land.

Reports from government inspectors released under freedom of information legislation show that concentrations of sea lice at three of the company’s sites on Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom have exceeded levels recommended in the industry’s good practice code six times this year.

Evidence released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) also shows that pollution of the seabed underneath the three sites – Corry, Ardmair and Ardessie – has been rated as “unsatisfactory” 20 times over the last ten years, and “borderline” eight times. The weight of caged fish licenced under environmental rules was also breached five times at Ardessie in 2006 and 2007.

Wester Ross Fisheries is a small locally owned business, producing 1,500 tonnes of salmon a year. It was given a grant of £631,720 by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) in March 2011 to help it expand.

Most scampi in the Clyde are polluted by plastic

from Sunday Herald, 24 April 2011

More than four out of five of the scampi in the Clyde Sea have been polluted by plastic waste posing a threat to human health and a £100 million fishery, a new scientific study has found.

Fibres of fishing nets and ropes, along with tiny pieces of polythene bags, have been detected in the stomachs of 83% of scampi, also known as langoustines, sampled from around the Isles of Cumbrae off Largs.

The plastic can make it difficult for the little orange-pink lobsters to feed properly, as it can bunch up into balls and cause blockages. It can also be contaminated by toxic chemicals which scientists say are ”a potential health concern” for humans.

The langoustine fishery is the most valuable in the UK, landing 42,000 tonnes worth £96 million in 2009. There are some 40 langoustine trawlers operating out of Clyde ports, plus 30-40 from other Scottish and Irish ports.

The study was carried out by scientists from the University of London, based at a marine biological station at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae, and from the University of Aberdeen. It is being published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Salmon farm facing prosecution over thousands of fish deaths

from Sunday Herald, 26 September 2010 

One of Scotland’s leading fish farm companies may face prosecution after many thousands of salmon were accidentally killed by an overdose of an unauthorised and highly toxic pesticide.

The Sunday Herald has learnt that investigators found significant quantities of pesticides banned for use on fish farms during raids on boats used by Hoganess Salmon, run by the Lakeland Group at Burrastow near Walls on the west coast of Shetland.

Excessive amounts of the pesticides, meant to kill the lice that eat away at salmon, are thought to have been used to douse the fish, causing mass mortalities and destroying other marine wildlife.

The incident occurred on 15 August when salmon were being treated for lice in a well boat, which has containers for live fish. It was initially reported that 6,000 fish died, but investigators have told the Sunday Herald that the total could be up to 20,000.

An investigation has been launched by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), Shetland Islands Council and several other agencies. Though it is not yet completed, investigators say that there will be a prosecution.

Plague of 'super lice' threatens wild salmon

from Caledonian Mercury, 16 February 2010

Wild salmon and trout populations in Scotland are under threat from a plague of ‘super lice’ at Norwegian fish farms, angling groups have warned.

Salmon farms in Norway have suffered from a huge rise of infestations by sea lice, which are becoming increasingly resistant to pesticides. The lice spread to wild fish, weakening and killing them.

Scottish anglers fear that the super lice will spread to Scotland’s fish farms, then deplete the nation’s vulnerable wild stocks. The prospects for wild salmon and trout are “deeply worrying”, they say.

Norway is the world’s biggest producer of farmed Atlantic salmon, producing around 865,000 tonnes a year. Scotland is second, with about 133,000 tonnes a year.

But the Scottish government wants to expand production by about a third - a prospect that is greeted with alarm by the Sea Trout Group. The group was set up by the Scottish Anglers National Association and the Salmon and Trout Association in 1997 to campaign for more controls on fish farming.

Salmon farming industry under attack in new film

Exclusive, 08 November 2009

Salmon farming multinationals are this week facing an unprecedented broadside from a new film which blames the industry for wrecking the environment and destroying livelihoods in Scotland, Canada and Chile.

The film accuses two leading Norwegian-owned companies, Marine Harvest and Cermaq, of spreading disease and lice to wild fish by siting their cages in the wrong places and allowing thousands of fish to escape.

This allegedly puts the jobs of shellfish farmers, local tourist businesses and   others at risk, while rewarding shareholders in Norway. The fish farming industry, however, described the accusations as outdated and inaccurate.

The film, ‘Farm Salmon Exposed’, has been made by Canadian filmmaker, Damien Gilles, and is being launched at a screening in Edinburgh tomorrow as part of a global week of action. Later in the week, it is also being shown in Dundonnell and Oban in Scotland, as well as Dublin in Ireland, Santiago in Chile, Vancouver in Canada, Washington DC in the US and Oslo in Norway.

Government to ban slicing off shark fins at sea for soup

from Sunday Herald, 11 October 2009

Slicing the fins off endangered sharks and selling them to China for soup - a practice widely condemned as “barbaric” - is to be banned in Scottish waters.

The Scottish government is promising to implement a ban “within weeks” following a campaign from wildlife groups. It is also lobbying the European Commission to close loopholes which have allowed thousands of tonnes of shark fins to be landed, while the rest of the animals’ bodies are dumped back into the sea.

“I have no doubt the Scottish public will abhor this cruel and wasteful activity and will welcome Scotland's leadership,” said the Scottish environment minister, Richard Lochhead.

“Some shark populations are close to extinction, so I am delighted that Scotland is bringing an end to such a barbaric practice. As one of Europe’s most important fishing nations, we have a duty to show that we are serious about protecting the sustainability of our seas.”

Google plan for floating internet servers powered by the waves

from Sunday Herald, 17 May 2009

Imagine it. Every time you click on a Google search, your request is answered by huge banks of internet computers floating around Scotland’s coast, powered by the sea.

It may sound like science fiction, but it’s serious. The internet giant, Google, has filed a patent for boats packed full of mainframe servers, driven by electricity from wave power machines under development in Scotland.

And it’s just one of a raft of proposals by major companies which are set to make Scotland a global centre for the arrays of powerful computers that keep the internet going - and exploit the nation’s inexhaustible supplies of clean, renewable energy.

The rapid expansion of the internet, which is now accessed by 1.6 billion people across the world, is demanding ever more power. Despite the efficiency of computer “data centres” increasing by 30% a year, the total amount of electricity they demand is doubling every 5-8 years.

Government crack down on cutting off shark fins for China

from Sunday Herald, 26 April 2009

The Scottish government is issuing new rules aimed at preventing endangered sharks from having their fins cut off and sold to China for soup.

Ministers are determined to stop foreign-owned boats from “shark finning” in Scottish waters, condemning it as a “wasteful and damaging practice”. Some fishermen are alleged to throw the sharks back into the sea after removing their fins.

There is a lucrative market in Asia for the fins, which are said to be worth up to £450 a kilogram. Shark fin soup is prized as a traditional delicacy at weddings and banquets in China.

According to the Scottish government, Anglo-Spanish boats administered from Ayr and Ullapool have applied for 16 shark finning permits this year. Seven permits were issued in 2006 and seven in 2007.

Company says sorry for offering environment officials free salmon

Exclusive, 10 February 2009

A Norwegian fish farming multinational has apologised for offering to reward officials at Scotland’s environment watchdog with smoked salmon for giving the go-ahead for a new toxic pesticide in record time.

Marine Harvest suggested sending “some sides of smoked salmon” to staff at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) after they processed applications to dose salmon cages with deltamethrin in a matter of days.

The suggestion was unethical and should never have been made, the Oslo-based company said. It promised it would be sparing Sepa any embarrassment by sending the agency “an unconditional apology”.

Last year salmon farmers were anxious to be allowed to use deltamethrin to treat sea lice, which eat fish alive. Previous pesticides were becoming ineffectual, as the lice were beginning to resist them.

Wild salmon 'under threat' from fish farms

from Sunday Herald, 30 March 2008

Scotland’s wild fish are increasingly being killed by lice leaking from salmon farms, new government research has revealed. But keeping them a safe distance apart has been deemed too costly and "logistically difficult" a solution.

A raft of internal reports from the Scottish government’s Fisheries Research Services (FRS) in Aberdeen and Pitlochry have uncovered strong evidence that sea lice from caged salmon contaminate fish in the wild - and that the problem seems to be getting worse.

Wild salmon at risk from the two million that got away

from Sunday Herald, 03 December 2006

Nearly two million salmon have escaped from fish farms in Scotland over the last six years, threatening wild salmon with chemical and genetic pollution.

The pollution could be tipping the king of fish into an "extinction vortex" from which it may never be able to recover, say environmentalists and anglers. They are demanding a "fundamental rethink".

Salmon farmers breaching pollution limits

from Sunday Herald, 01 October 2006

Salmon farmers across Scotland have breached pollution limits more than 400 times over the past three years, contaminating lochs and endangering wildlife.

Salmon farm code ‘fails to do enough for environment’

from Sunday Herald, 12 March 2006

RECOMMENDATIONS to reduce the environmental damage caused by fish farms have been ignored by the industry, according to a leaked account of a ministerial meeting.

Scientist vows: I will not back down over toxic salmon claim

from Sunday Herald, 29 February 2004

The Scottish fish farming industry has been accused of desperately trying to intimidate the scientists who raised the alarm about the dangers of eating salmon contaminated with toxic chemicals.

Scientists back toxic salmon study

from Sunday Herald, 18 January 2004

The US study that sparked the toxic salmon scare has been strongly defended by leading scientists following allegations from the fish farming industry that it was biased and flawed.

A fishy tale of salmon, dioxins and food safety

from New Scientist, 17 January 2004

The argument over whether farmed salmon is safe to eat has been as frenzied as the fish at feeding time. Not only has it alarmed the industry and confused the public, it has also left scientists at odds over how to assess food safety.

Spawning a new crisis

from Sunday Herald, 11 January 2004

Like Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the Scottish salmon farming industry always looks on the bright side of life. Being condemned by a devastating US study for producing salmon is so contaminated with toxic chemicals that it is dangerous to eat isn’t something that gets Scottish Quality Salmon (SQS) down. On the contrary, it seems to buoy it up.