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.
The Lakeland Group, which was owned by the Norwegian fish farming multinational, Marine Farms, before being bought this month by the Polish company Morpol, has admitted that “lice products not approved for salmon may have been used”. It has suspended all harvesting of fish from Hoganess.
The company has also withdrawn from the salmon quality certification schemes run by industry bodies. According to the government’s Food Standards Agency, no fish from the site have entered the food chain since 6 August, nine days before the incident.
“Investigations are ongoing into the alleged use of unauthorised chemicals to treat sea lice at a salmon farm on the west side of Shetland,” Sepa’s chief executive, Campbell Gemmell reported to his board last week.
“Sepa officers visited the farm premises unannounced and removed items for further investigation, including chemical canisters, samples of fish and seaweed for analysis,” he said.
“Results of the analysis appear to support the need for Sepa to investigate the matter further, and officers are carrying out interviews and further evidence-gathering with a view to taking appropriate enforcement action.”
The branded pesticides found at Hoganess contained cypermethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid which is highly toxic to fish and marine life. It has been used in sheep dips to kill maggots, or to treat horses for lice, but is not permitted for use on fish.
Despite this, environmental and animal welfare groups have long suspected that cypermethrin is widely used at fish farms because it is one of the few effective ways of getting rid of lice, which are becoming increasingly resistant to treatment.
Fiona Cameron from the Sea Trout Group, representing anglers, expressed deep concern over what’s alleged to have happened in Shetland. “It's important that any official investigations into this report quickly and publicly,” she said.
She was worried that Scotland could be on the brink of major problems controlling sea lice. There had been plagues of “superlice” in Norway which were resistant to chemical treatments.
A spokesman for the SSPCA said: “We can confirm that we are conducting an investigation into an incident which involved a large number of salmon deaths in Shetland.”
The Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) was “shocked” by the allegations, but insisted they were speculation. “The SSPO and Shetland Aquaculture have urged the company to assist the investigating agencies fully,” said SSPO’s chief executive, Scott Landsburgh.
“For the time being, until the results of the investigations become clear, the organisations have accepted the company’s offer for the sites under investigation to be suspended from existing certification schemes.”
Willie Liston, the managing director of the Lakeland Group said: "Both our internal and the multi-agency investigations into the mortalities in a cage at Burrastow in Hoganess, are proceeding. Harvesting at the site remains suspended until those investigations are complete.
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