A warning letter from the
Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia will be
delivered later today (19 November) to Loch Duart’s office in Lochmaddy. GAAIA
has also written
to Her Majesty the Queen (who served Loch
Duart farmed salmon at her Diamond Jubilee in June) asking her to screen her farmed
salmon for Chlamydia
and other infectious diseases which were reported this year in Loch Duart's "sustainable" farmed salmon.
Read a press release – "Fit for the
Queen & Residents of Nova Scotia – Loch Duart’s Chlamydia-Contaminated
Salmon?" - online here
“I
am writing to you from New Scotland, Nova Scotia, where Loch Duart is seeking
to have licences on our Eastern Shore to install three eighteen hectare open
pen salmon feedlots,” wrote Marike Findlay, President of the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore
(APES). “We, the citizens of Nova
Scotia, beseech you, the citizens of Scotland, to prevail upon your government
not to allow Loch Duart to come to Nova Scotia to contaminate our waters. Pollution that severely damages our wild
catch fisheries, our tourism industries, and our wild and pristine environment,
is not the kind of diplomacy that needs to exist between the New and Old
Scotlands.”
The letter concludes:
Read
the letter in full online
here and watch a video report of the letter being delivered yesterday
(nobody was home so it will be redelivered today) online here
The letter, addressed to 'Scottish Citizens', was read out by Canadian citizen Elena Edwards of Wild Salmon First who is visiting from Canada.
Disease
data obtained from Marine Scotland via Freedom of Information in August 2012 reveals
that Loch Duart’s operations in Lochmaddy were riddled with infectious diseases
including Epitheliocystis
(Chlamydia), Salmonid Alphavirus
(Salmon Pancreas Disease Virus) and Vibrio species
(Winter Ulcer) during the period April to July 2012.
In
July 2012, following a FOI request, Marine Scotland also revealed
that escapees from Loch Duart’s operations in Lochmaddy in December 2011 had “some
Amoebic Gill Disease” (Read more via “Gill
Diseases: Scottish Salmon’s Dirty Big Secret”).
In June 2012, Her Majesty the Queen and her guests
at her Diamond Jubilee luncheon dined on farmed salmon from Loch
Duart’s operations in the Uists. Last year, Loch
Duart farmed salmon was on the menu for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and
Kate Middleton at Buckingham Palace.
“Chlamydia-infected
farmed salmon is not fit for the Queen’s corgis let alone the Royal Family,” said
Don
Staniford of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) who
will deliver the letter on behalf of APES.
“Loch Duart markets itself around the world as
‘The Sustainable Salmon Company’ but if truth be told it should re-name itself ‘The
Chlamydia Company’.”
“Loch
Duart is a mange-ridden wolf in salmon’s clothing who has duped Her
Majesty the Queen, Prince
William, the Marine
Conservation Society and some of the world’s top chefs including Rick Stein,” continued
Staniford who visited Loch Duart’s operations in Lochmaddy yesterday (18
November).
“The fact
is that Loch Duart is a company which uses known shellfish-killing chemicals
such as Teflubenzuron, Azamethiphos, Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin and Emamectin
benzoate and has an appalling history
of escapes. Chlamydia-infected farmed
salmon from Loch Duart should be avoided like the plague.”
Watch
a video report shot yesterday (18 November) at Loch Duart’s operations in North
Uist – online
here
In September 2012, Fishyleaks
published damning data on Loch
Duart’s use of toxic chemicals. Following
the revelations, The Chronicle Herald in Nova Scotia reported
that the findings “will not hurt the
company’s pending application, says a Fisheries and Aquaculture Department
spokesman.”
According to the data
supplied by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Loch Duart was the
fifth largest user of toxic chemicals in Scottish salmon farming using a total
of 89350.988g in the period 2008-2011 – including 53490g of the organophosphate
Azamethiphos; 23555.1g of the insecticide Teflubenzuron, 5949.538g of the
pesticide Emamectin benzoate; 3565.5g of the lobster-killing Cypermethrin; and
2790.85g of the bath treatment Deltamethrin.
Loch Duart is now using vast quantities of hydrogen peroxide to treat the Chlamydia-like parasites responsible for Amoebic Gill Disease and Epitheliocystis.
For more background read
“Loch
Duart – The Toxic Salmon Company”
Loch
Duart’s plans to expand into Eastern Canada
via Snow Island
Salmon have been met with fierce community
opposition. Earlier this month, South
Coast Today reported
that: “Loch Duart may be considering pulling out of Snow Island Salmon altogether. This is due, say sources, “to the huge
disease outbreak on his farms in Scotland and perhaps the fierce resistance to
his company here in the area.”
In
March 2012, a letter
sent to Loch Duart from the Association for the Preservation of the
Eastern Shore warned that “80-90% of the citizens of the Eastern Shore are
against Loch Duart coming here”. “Many
citizens have researched Loch Duart online and are aware of its terrible
record,” continued the letter. “They have learned that Loch Duart is in no way
better than any other salmon farm although they always claim to be. They are
among the companies with most extensive use of toxic chemicals in all of
Scotland. It’s also widely known that
Loch Duart Ltd has an appalling track record on escapes. The people of the
Eastern Shore do not want Loch Duart despoiling their pristine coastline,
polluting their coastal waters and spoiling their sustainable fisheries and
industries.”
For
more background read “Loch
Duart’s ‘Sustainable Salmon’ Scam Exposed”
