MSPs steered away from disease-ridden Scottish salmon!

 

 

 

 

Here's an email sent to MSPs scheduled to visit a salmon farm operated by Norskott Havbruk (Scottish Sea Farms) at Dunstaffnage near Oban on Sunday (11 September) or Monday (12 September):

 

From: Don Staniford <salmonfarmingkills@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 8, 2022 at 12:57 PM
Subject: MSP visit to Dunstaffnage salmon farm – why not peek inside Loch Creran?
To: <rural.committee@parliament.scot>, Burgess A (Ariane), MSP <Ariane.Burgess.msp@parliament.scot>, MSP <Rachael.Hamilton.msp@parliament.scot>, Carson F (Finlay), MSP <Finlay.Carson.msp@parliament.scot>, <Jenni.Minto.msp@parliament.scot>, <Beatrice.Wishart.msp@parliament.scot>, <Mercedes.Villalba.msp@parliament.scot>
Cc: Gougeon M (Mairi), MSP <Mairi.Gougeon.msp@parliament.scot>, Ruskell M (Mark), MSP <Mark.Ruskell.msp@parliament.scot>, MSP <Patrick.Harvie.msp@parliament.scot>, MSP <Ross.Greer.msp@parliament.scot>, Johnstone A (Alison), MSP <Alison.Johnstone.msp@parliament.scot>, <scottish.ministers@gov.scot>, <netzero.committee@parliament.scot>, <directormarinescotland@gov.scot>, <sheila.voas@gov.scot>, Cathy Dwyer <cathy.dwyer@sruc.ac.uk>, <Maggie.Chapman.msp@parliament.scot>, Fergus Ewing <Fergus.Ewing.msp@scottish.parliament.uk>, Forbes K (Kate), MSP <Kate.Forbes.msp@parliament.scot>, <Mairi.McAllan.msp@parliament.scot>, Mountain E (Edward), MSP <Edward.Mountain.msp@parliament.scot>, MSP <Alex.Rowley.msp@parliament.scot>, Beamish C (Claudia), MSP <Claudia.Beamish.msp@parliament.scot>, MSP <Maree.Todd.msp@parliament.scot>, Cameron D (Donald), MSP <Donald.Cameron.msp@parliament.scot>
 
I was reading that MSPs are scheduled to the Barcaldine hatchery and the Dunstaffnage salmon farm operated by Scottish Sea Farms: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/scottish-parliament-scottish-sea-farms/msps-to-see-salmon-farming-up-close/1427183
 
During your visit why don't you take a boat trip from Barcaldine – Scottish Sea Farms have a boat there which can take you out to the site – to the Loch Creran salmon farm?
 
It's much closer than driving down to Dunstaffnage and then taking a boat out from there. 
 
$camon $cotland kayaked out to the Loch Creran salmon farm in July (as well as visiting other Scottish Sea Farms sites in the Sound of Mull) and we were shocked to discover dead and diseased salmon at the RSPCA Assured site.  You can watch video footage and see photos via:
 
 
 
 
A summary of video footage shot in Loch Creran two months ago is online via:
 
 
BBC Countryfile featured the RSPCA Assured salmon farm in Loch Creran in December 2020 – and once more found shocking welfare abuse:
 
 
 
If you look at the latest biomass data published by SEPA via Scotland's Aquaculture, you will see that the Dunstaffnage salmon farm was empty of fish in December 2021 (the latest data available): http://aquaculture.scotland.gov.uk/data/fish_farms_monthly_biomass_and_treatment_reports_record.aspx?monthly_data_id=4692883
 
If you look at Salmon Scotland's data then you will see that the Dunstaffnage salmon farm was only stocked in May 2022: https://www.salmonscotland.co.uk/sites/default/files/2022-07/may_2022.pdf (note that Loch Creran salmon farm reported 6.5% mortality in the month of May 2022)
 
Loch Creran salmon farm reported 17.9% monthly mortality in July 2022 alone (compared to 0.2% for Dunstaffnage salmon farm and 7.6% mortality at Lismore East): https://www.salmonscotland.co.uk/sites/default/files/2022-09/july_2022.pdf
 
To put the above mortality rate into perspective, 17.9% mortality represents one in six farmed salmon dying in a single month.  If this rate of death was happening on land in a sheep farm or one in six cows in a field were dying then the public would be outraged.
 
Suffice to say that it would be more environmentally friendly – meaning less travel – if the RECC visited Loch Creran salmon farm rather than Dunstaffnage. 
 
Obviously, Scottish Sea Farms and Salmon Scotland want to steer you away from disease and mortality problems.  Speaking of which, MSPs should take a close look at the mortality data published recently by Salmon Scotland for July 2022 which includes the following salmon farms which reported alarming death rates:
 
July 2022 data from Salmon Scotland
 
Just to make it simple for people, like me who may have been in the remedial Maths class at school, a cumulative mortality of 59.5% (as reported by Mowi at RSPCA Assured Greshornish salmon farm) means that if 1 million farmed salmon were stocked on the site in March 2021 then only ca. 400,000 made it out alive (i.e. 6 out of every fish died). 
 
Read and weep at the latest mortality data for July 2022 (as reported by salmon farming companies themselves) via: https://www.salmonscotland.co.uk/sites/default/files/2022-09/july_2022.pdf
 
If you look at the mortality data for June 2022 then you have 55.9% cumulative mortality at Mowi's RSPCA Assured and ASC-certified Greanem salmon farm and 30.6% cumulative mortality at Bakkafrost's Portree salmon farm: https://www.salmonscotland.co.uk/sites/default/files/2022-08/june_2022.pdf
 
You may have read the recent BBC report on how toxic gases are leaking from Bakkafrost's salmon farm off Portee:
 
You may even have read $camon $cotland's blog last month on mortality problems at Mowi:
 
If you cannot visit a disease-ridden salmon farm for yourself – bear in mind that salmon farming companies may only offer you the red carpet treatment to pristine sites where fish have just been stocked (farms in the second year of production are the ones to target) – then here's some video footage from Mowi's RSPCA Assured Greshornish salmon farm: https://vimeo.com/441103390
 
Undercover video footage shot by investigators at CIWF was also published in March 2021:
 
Photos of welfare abuse inside salmon farms are available via:
 
Instead of choosing to look the other way – and going along with what the nice lady at Scottish Sea Farms or lovely man at Mowi and Bakkafrost tells you – don't MSPs have a duty to investigate the issue more fully?
 
 
The RECC visit to Dunstaffnage salmon farm is rather like a serial killer showing you around his lovely new house which has just been cleaned but failing to show you all the dead bodies piled up in his house of death next door. 
 
Surely the RECC visit is an opportunity to ask critical questions of the disease-ridden salmon farming industry rather than be duped by their sick/slick PR game?
 
Please note my Tweets on this via:
 
If you would like to visit a salmon farm with disease and mortality problems – perhaps in a kayak early in the morning before Tavish Scott has even eaten his listeria-contaminated smoked salmon bagel – please let me know.  I am on 07771 541826. 
 
A simple rule: the salmon farms which the industry is willing to show you and allow you to visit are NOT the ones which warrant investigation.  However, you may pick up a police escort for daring to go close to disease-ridden salmon cages:
 
For more background please read:
 
 
 
Best fishes,
 
Don Staniford
 
Director, $camon $cotland
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

Greanem blog Aug 2022 #10 mortality rates June 2022

 
 
 
 
Scottish Salmon Watch reported in December 2021: 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Read more via:
 
 
 

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The Killing Farms – Scottish Salmon's Horror Story Continues!

Solving Scottish Salmon's Multi-Million Mortality Problem

 
 

 
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