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.

In June the company won a “stewardship award” at the Crown Estate’s marine aquaculture awards for “sustainability of the business in its environment”. And it is approved by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) as a “freedom food” for good standards of animal welfare.

But the company is now under attack by Guy Linley-Adams, an environmental solicitor acting for Scobie. He has written to HIE asking for its grant to be “urgently reviewed”, to the Crown Estate criticising the prize it awarded and to Sepa demanding a crackdown.

“It is quite simple,” he told the Sunday Herald. “Polluting farms with bad sea lice problems should not win environmental awards and obtain grants to expand. It looks like someone didn't do their research properly.”

It was unclear why Sepa had failed to act to stop “unacceptable” pollution, Linley-Adams argued. “Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom together must now be put firmly at the top of the candidate list for fish-farm-free areas on the west coast that we know ministers are considering.”

According to Jenny Scobie, the high levels of sea lice found locally this summer on wild juvenile sea trout would almost certainly prove fatal. “Wester Ross Fisheries' serial failure to prevent seabed pollution and to control sea lice makes a mockery of the industry's oft-quoted contention that it is tightly regulated,” she said.

But Wester Ross Fisheries strongly defended its business. “Some of these outrageous allegations are inaccurate, and will jeopardise the crucial employment at the largest private-sector operation in the Ullapool area,” said the company’s managing director, Gilpin Bradley.

“Wester Ross Fisheries is fully compliant with the legislation affecting salmon farming and in addition we meet the standards of the code of good practice for fish farming and the RSPCA welfare standards. We believe strongly in working closely with our local wild fish interests.”

According to Bradley, it was “simply naive” to suggest that fish farming is the sole reason for the decline in salmon and sea trout stocks on the west coast. “These environmental issues raised by Guy Linley-Adams are simply a disguise for a fundamental commercial conflict of interest,” he said.

HIE said that it was investigating the allegations as a formal complaint, and would reply as soon as possible. Its grant had secured 36 jobs in a fragile area and was expected to help create a further 21 jobs by 2015.

The Crown Estate pointed out that its stewardship award “recognises specific initiatives that have contributed to the sustainability of the business in its natural, stakeholder or community environment.” Pollution was Sepa’s responsibility, it said.

Sepa said that Wester Ross Fisheries was not in its action plan to cut pollution this year but was “likely” to be included next year. That “may include a significant reduction in the biomass which can be held at the site,” according to Sepa’s fish farm expert, Douglas Sinclair.

The RSPCA said it would schedule a visit to Wester Ross Fisheries “to ensure RSPCA welfare standards are being maintained.” Added a spokeswoman: “The RSPCA was not aware of this information, and is grateful for it being brought to our attention.”