Ground-Truthing Disease-Ridden Scottish Salmon

When photographer Corin Smith swam out to a salmon farm in Loch Roag on the Isle of Lewis armed only with a Go Pro video camera in August 2018 he was probably not prepared for the shit-storm he would be faced with.

In response to the publication of his shocking images of lice-infested and welfare abuse by The Ferret in September 2018, The Scottish Salmon Company's first reaction was to question whether the video footage was taken at their Vacasay salmon farm. The BBC reported (4 September 2018):

The second response was for The Scottish Salmon Company to claim a breach of biosecurity (even though their salmon farms are discharging untreated effluent directly into Scottish waters including infectious diseases, pathogens and viruses such as Piscine Reovirus). Fish Farming Expert reported (4 September 2018):

The Scottish Salmon Company's tactics of deny, delay and distract prompted Corin Smith to post on Facebook (10 September 2018):

Download photos and footage made publicly available by photographer Corin Smith online here

The BBC's One Show broadcast the video footage on 10 September 2018 (also broadcast by BBC Panorama in May 2019).

The trade publication Salmon Business lambasted the "own goal" by The Scottish Salmon Company's and their PR consultants:

The Scottish Salmon Company (a company registered in the tax haven of Jersey, floated on the Norwegian stock exchange and whose largest shareholder is an anonymous Swiss bank account believed to be controlled by Ukrainian banker Yury Lopatinskyy) is now culpable of the same PR "own goal" by denying the painfully obvious welfare abuse at their salmon farm in Loch Shieldaig.

When questioned by STV News, The Scottish Salmon Company once again questioned whether the video footage and photos were from their site.

The same line was given to The Ferret (13 June 2019):

STV News (19 June 2019) featured video footage from Scottish Salmon Watch – watch online now

Scottish Salmon Watch's video footage prompted a complaint to Police Scotland, the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate and the Animal & Plant Health Agency re. breach of the Animal Health & Welfare Act (Scotland) 2006.

Scottish Salmon Watch's complaint enclosed photos and video evidence and detailed how a Volt de-louser (and other boats) were at The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm in Loch Shieldaig.

Video footage of the de-bugging operation was posted online.

Scottish Salmon Watch's press release (13 June 2019) included the following quote from a kayaker who acted as a safety 'buddy' during filming in Loch Shieldaig.

Scottish Salmon Watch invite readers (including journalists, salmon farmers and politicians) to view the photos and video footage for yourselves and judge whether it was shot at The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm in Loch Shieldaig.

The photos and video footage have been made publicly available via Google Drive.

To further ground-truth the filming in Loch Shieldaig, Scottish Salmon Watch has made further video evidence available online.

Watch a video report from Don Staniford at The Scottish Salmon Company's farm in Loch Shieldaig (Loch Torridon) on 8 June 2019:

Watch Don Staniford, Director of Scottish Salmon Watch, explaining the importance of biosecurity and disinfection before and after filming at salmon farms (recorded on 8 June 2019 in Loch Shieldaig):

The following day (9 June 2019), Scottish Salmon Watch filmed inside The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm in Lamlash Bay (a Marine Protected Area) on the Isle of Arran.

Does The Scottish Salmon Company deny they have lice problems and wild fish swimming inside their cages at their salmon farm on the Isle of Arran?

Or will The Scottish Salmon Company issue more denials to the welfare problems which are staring them in the face?

In July & August 2018, Scottish Salmon Watch filmed inside The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm at Quarry Point in Loch Fyne.

The Sunday Post reported in September 2018:

Prior to filming Scottish Salmon Watch took bio-security and disinfection precautions recommended by the Scottish Government and in the salmon farming industry's Code of Good Practice:

Scottish Salmon Watch revealed in August 2018 that lawyers acting for The Scottish Salmon Company and Scottish Sea Farms tried to block the publication of gruesome photos of disease-ridden Scottish salmon obtained via Freedom of Information from the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate surveillance of salmon farms.

Here's some of the photos – obtained by Scottish Salmon Watch via Freedom of Information – The Scottish Salmon Company did not want the public the see (published in June 2018 by The Ferret).

And more photos (sourced from Scottish Government Fish Health Inspections in 2017 and 2018) published by Scottish Salmon Watch in June 2018 and in August 2018):

And here's more stomach-churning photos of diseased salmon at The Scottish Salmon Company in 2016 (published by Scottish Salmon Watch in August 2018 – and sourced from the Scottish Government Fish Health Inspectorate surveillance):

Read more via:

Scottish Salmon Watch published further 'Case Information' in March 2019 sourced from Fish Health Inspectorate visits to disease-ridden Scottish salmon farms. Infectious diseases, viruses and pathogens officially reported by The Scottish Salmon Company to the Scottish Government in 2017 and 2018 included: Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD), Salmonid Alphavirus (SAV), Pancreas Disease (PD), Haemorrhagic Smolt Syndrome (HSS), Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS), Anaemia, Fungus, Vibrio anguillarum, Proliferative Gill Disease (PGD) and Enteric Redmouth Disease (ERM).

Download Excel spreadsheet in full online here

Read more on diseases, viruses and pathogens reported on Scottish salmon farms during 2018 via: New Report – "The State of Scottish Salmon Farming in 2018"

Scottish Salmon Watch has also filmed inside the skips containing disease-ridden Scottish salmon – watch videos of disease-ridden mortalities at The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm at Quarry Point in Loch Fyne:

And at The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm at Strondoir Bay in Loch Fyne:

Read more background on the murky waters of The Scottish Salmon Company via: Media Backgrounder: "The Scottish Scamon Company" (13 June 2019)

Watch a video report from The Scottish Salmon Company's processing plant at Cairndow on Loch Fyne online here

Faced with a mountain of damning evidence of mass mortalities, welfare problems and infectious diseases it is difficult to fathom how the Scottish Government and 'Scottish' salmon farming industry (it's actually 99% foreign controlled/owned) can seriously talk of the success-story of Scottish salmon. Yet here we see the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, claim earlier today that Scotland's food and drink sector (led by farmed salmon exports) is a "massive success story".

Maybe the First Minister of Scotland has been schmoozed by her next door neighbour in Charlotte Square, Yuri Lopatinsky (the shady owner of The Scottish Salmon Company)?

"Salmon is Scotland’s biggest food export and in the top-three of UK food exports too," opines Hamish Macdonell (director of strategic engagement at the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation and formerly a journalist with the Times newspaper) in today's Scotsman newspaper. "It is, quite clearly, a hugely successful product. It is renowned globally for its quality and regularly comes top of surveys rating the best salmon in the world."

Maybe Hamish was away from his desk when The Sunday Times reported how Scottish farmed salmon ranked the worst (even lower than Norwegian, Chilean and Canadian farmed salmon)?

Hamish's puff-piece, which reads like a paid advertorial rather than a critical piece of reporting (e.g. read an article Hamish Macdonell wrote for The Times in 2018 on the "huge risk to the environment" posed by salmon farms), emphasizes Scottish salmon's positive message on "animal welfare":

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to call bullshit.

Do you really think Scottish salmon has a positive message to tell on animal welfare? OneKind, for one, may take issue with that statement.

It seems that, unlike salmon farmers (and their PR people), the camera never lies. Sir David Attenborough, a man well used to the camera, seems to agree that salmon farming is more pariah than panacea with the 'King of Fish' reduced via battery salmon farming to a leper not a leaper.

Watch Sir David Attenborough's video message online here