Revealed: Mowi's Nightmare in Loch Linnhe - 55% Mortality & Infectious Diseases

If anyone still has any serious doubts about the state of Scottish salmon farming then readers are encouraged to delve into the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate 'Case Information' published online every month.

New information for inspections of salmon farms during August was posted online earlier this week (15 October) and it makes for more grim reading for shareholders in the Norwegian-owned giant Mowi (they were forced to change their name in January 2019 after their CEO admitted consumers had negative associations with the name Marine Harvest).

The Fish Health Inspectorate visit in August 2019 reported Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS), Pancreas Disease (PD) and Pasteurella skyensis (a bacterium cited in the deaths of 125,000 farmed salmon at Mowi's Isle of Lewis salmon farms in 2017).

The Fish Health Inspectorate report for Mowi's Linnhe salmon farm at Ardgour details shocking mortality rates of 32%, 49% and 55% with the site being harvested out to avoid further problems.

To put the mortality rate into perspective, here's a Facebook post yesterday from Corin Smith's Inside Scottish Salmon Feedlots.

Results of surveillance added Heart & Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) to the disease problems at Mowi's Linnhe salmon farm at Ardgour.

In June 2019, Scottish Salmon Watch revealed that over 50% of farmed salmon tested by the Scottish Government in 2018 and 2019 were infected with Piscine Reovirus (the causative agent of HSMI).

The Fish Health Inspectorate visited Mowi's Linnhe salmon farm after most of the disease-ridden fish had been cleared out with only one cage stocked at the time of the inspection in August 2019.

Last year, Scottish Salmon Watch revealed that salmon farms were fast-tracking harvesting to hide problems with infectious diseases.

Here's video footage of disease-ridden salmon in a skip at a Mowi salmon farm at Gorsten in Loch Linnhe.

Mowi is currently in hot water in Canada in relation to the late reporting of disease problems and Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) in particular.

When Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's Linnhe salmon farm at Ardgour in early July 2019 harvesting out was well under way with Health & Safety violations spotted by an eagle-eyed John Robins of Animal Concern.

Last month, Scottish Salmon Watch revealed huge problems at Mowi's salmon farm at nearby Kingairloch also in Loch Linnhe (again sourced from a Fish Health Inspectorate report published online).

The Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate slipped out a report in August 2019 detailing an inspection of Mowi's salmon farm at Kingairloch in April 2019 – including Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS), Pasteurella skyensis, multifocal hepatic necrosis, Salmonid Alphavirus, anorexia, lesions, haemorrhaging and deformed hearts:

Read online via "Cardiac Disease Arrests Mowi in Kingairloch"

More gruesome photos of welfare abuse and disease problems at Mowi's farm off the Isle of Rum were published online by the Scottish Government on 10 September 2019: