Rob Edwards

Ministers told to reveal where seals are shot

from Sunday Herald, 02 December 2012

Scottish ministers are being ordered to name the fish farms that shoot seals - and rebuked for trying to keep them secret.

In a damning decision to be published tomorrow, the Scottish Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, rejects ministers’ arguments for secrecy as “tenuous”. She says she is “disappointed” at the government’s failure to provide evidence in support of its claim that public safety would be put at risk. 

Ministers now have to reveal the number of seals killed by fish farming companies at individual sites before 10 January. The only way they could avoid doing so is by appealing to the Court of Session on a point of law.

The Sunday Herald disclosed in September that the Scottish government was refusing to identify the fish farms that shot seals because of fears that direct action by protestors trying to save the seals could put shooters at risk.

This was angrily disputed by anti-fish-farming campaigners at the time, and has now been dismissed by Agnew. “The commissioner accepts that the killing of seals is an emotive subject, and one which could conceivably lead to direct action by protestors,” says her decision.

“However, in relation to a potential threat to public safety, the ministers have not provided any specific examples or evidence which would support their view that public safety would, or would be likely to be, threatened.”

Fish farm plant with sick workers breached US food safety rules

from Sunday Herald, 28 October 2012

A Scottish fish farming plant whose workers complained of a mystery illness has previously been reprimanded by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for “serious violations” of food safety rules on pesticides in salmon.

A processing plant at Connel in Argyll run by Scottish Sea Farms was warned by the FDA in March this year that it was in breach of US federal regulations. “Your firm’s aquaculture farmed salmon appear to be adulterated,” the FDA said, “in that the products have been prepared, packed, or held under conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health.”

The company exports salmon worth £12 million a year to the US, and its Argyll plant was visited by FDA inspectors in September 2011. They were concerned about the way fish were tested for residues of three pesticides used to kill sea lice.

Last week the plant was at the centre of controversy because half its 40 staff had been sick, with some suggesting that toxic chemicals they were exposed to at work could be to blame. This was denied by Scottish Sea Farms. 

But the revelation that the plant had been investigated earlier by the FDA has sparked fierce criticism from an anti-fish farming campaigner. “It's now official - salmon farming makes people sick,” said Don Staniford from the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture.

Sites where seals shot kept secret in fear of protest

from Sunday Herald, 23 September 2012

The salmon farms where seals have been shot are being kept secret because the Scottish government fears that direct action by protestors trying to save the seals could put shooters at risk.

But this is angrily dismissed as “blatant scare-mongering” and a “ludicrous excuse” for official secrecy by animal welfare campaigners. They say they would act within the law, and would not do anything that would endanger fish farm workers.

“I would willingly put myself between a government-licensed killer and his intended victim, especially if that was a pregnant or nursing seal,” said David Scott from Sea Shepherd UK. “I would do no harm to the rifleman, nor would I break any laws in doing so - but I would protect the seal.”

Scottish ministers have licensed eight fish farming companies to shoot more than 300 seals since the start of 2011. Killing them is meant to be a last resort to prevent them from taking and eating salmon from underwater cages.

But the killing has faced fierce opposition from campaigners, who argue that it is cruel and unnecessary. Instead, seals can be stopped from taking fish by high-tension nets, they say.

Will wildlife have to pay the price for salmon farming?

from Scottish Wildlife Trust magazine, August 2012

Nearly every day in the summer, David Ainsley takes tourists on his boat, Porpoise II, to look for wildlife amidst the unassuming beauty of water, rock and hill that characterises the west coast of Scotland. If they are lucky, they get to see eagles, goats, seals, dolphins, porpoises and minke whales, as well as the famed Corryvreckan whirlpool.

For more than 20 years, Ainsley has been running a successful wildlife-watching business from his home on the island of Seil, eight miles south of Oban. But now he is worried that the wildlife - and with it his livelihood - could be blighted by the burgeoning billion-pound fish farming industry.

A Polish-owned company, the Meridian Salmon Group, has applied for planning permission to double the production of a nearby salmon farm in the Sound of Seil off Ardmaddy, and move it 900 metres south. This means more shooting and scaring of seals, more pollution and more dangers for the area’s priceless natural heritage, Ainsley fears.

“Salmon farming is an important industry but some farms unnecessarily kill wildlife and affect wildlife tourism,” he says. “The salmon farm at Ardmaddy is a classic example of an inappropriately located farm.” 

In their anxiety to prevent seals from eating salmon, fish farmers sometimes shoot them, or try to frighten them with loud underwater blasts of noise. But according to Ainsley, this can interfere with the echo-sounding vital for dolphin and porpoise navigation. “It’s like blinding them,” he argues.

Supermarkets say they won’t buy Scottish mackerel

from Sunday Herald, 01 July 2012

Three leading supermarket chains say they will not buy Scottish mackerel while its environmental certification is suspended because of a dispute with Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

This has prompted a fierce political row, with Scottish ministers under fire for failing to engage with retailers. The fishing industry said it would be “extremely disappointed” if supermarkets abandoned Scottish mackerel.

The mackerel catch is by far the most valuable of all Scottish fish, with the 146,000 tonnes landed in 2011 worth £163 million. But it has got caught up in an international crisis that is not of its making.

The crisis was sparked by Iceland and the Faroe Islands breaching the quotas agreed by scientists for mackerel in the northeast Atlantic. Overfishing by the two countries has led to the quotas being exceeded 25% in the last two years.

As a result the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which certifies that fishing is sustainable, suspended certification of the entire mackerel fishery at the end of March. Now, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has discovered that this has persuaded Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and the Co-op to shelve plans to buy Scottish mackerel. 

Call for trawlers to be banned to bring fish back to the Clyde

from Sunday Herald, 01 July 2012

Ministers are facing mounting pressure to ban trawlers from raking the seabed for prawns to help reverse the catastrophic collapse of fish populations in the Clyde.

A new report by Scottish government scientists has concluded that past fishing has had “a major ecological impact” on the firth. As many of 90% of the fish are now smaller than the minimum landing size, and 72% of them are just one species – whiting.

One factor blamed for preventing the populations recovering is that bigger fish are taken as by-catch by the Clyde’s £20 million prawn trawler industry. Data from the government’s scientific observers suggests that prawn trawlers “may be partly responsible for the current absence of older, larger fish in the Clyde”, the report says.

This has been seized on by conservationists, creel-fishers and anglers to boost their campaign for a ban on prawn trawling within three miles of the coast. But it has been fiercely rejected by the prawn trawling industry, which denies it’s to blame.

The ‘Clyde Ecosystem Review’ published by the government’s Marine Scotland Science, says the Clyde is like “used agricultural land in need of restoration”. Without bigger fish, it will fail to meet the good environmental standards required by the European Union’s marine framework directive in 2020.

Keeping salmon farming problems secret

from Sunday Herald, 01 July 2012 

Scotland’s £1 billion salmon farming industry has been accused of hiding “damning” information about its environmental dangers from the public. 

Salmon companies are refusing to send vital data to Scottish government scientists to avoid it being released under freedom of information law. And on the few occasions they have had to forward information, it has been deleted by government officials.

The information is about one of the biggest problems plaguing salmon farmers - infestations of sea lice. The tiny creatures multiple in salmon cages and can spread to wild fish, eating them alive.

Salmon farmers apply toxic pesticides to try and kill them off, though there are signs that the lice are becoming increasingly resistant. The pesticides have contaminated sea lochs along the north west coast.

The law requires salmon farmers to regularly monitor the number of sea lice in their cages. They have previously sent the results to Scottish government marine scientists in Aberdeen to help with research and treatment.

But emails released in response to freedom of information requests show that salmon farming companies are no longer supplying the data because it could be accessed by their critics using freedom of information legislation.

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.