Mowi's Welfare Nightmare on Rum - "blind", "physical damage", "anorexic" & over 40,000 dead fish!

Gruesome photos of welfare abuse and disease problems at Mowi's farm off the Isle of Rum (published online by the Scottish Government on 10 September 2019) blow out the water the company's claims that their salmon are "healthy"!

Do these lice-infested, "blind", "physically damaged" and "anorexic" salmon look the picture of health as claimed by Mowi's slick marketing?

Surely Scottish Ministers should think twice before gorging themselves on Mowi's disease-ridden salmon?

And perhaps residents on the Isle of Canna where Mowi want to site a new salmon farm should look closely at Mowi's problems on nearby Rum (where 135 tonnes of dead farmed salmon were reported in June 2019), Mowi's controversial salmon farm on the Isle of Colonsay (scene of 150,000 dead salmon in 2017) and Mowi's 300,000 salmon battered to death at their Carradale farm in Kilbrannan Sound?

Given the horror story of Scottish salmon it's not difficult to understand why Mowi does not want the public from coming closer than 15 metres from their salmon farms.

Here's more photos of Mowi's disease-ridden salmon obtained via Freedom Information in 2018:

Horror photos of farmed salmon spark legal threat

Hard Evidence: Photos of Diseased & Deformed Scottish Salmon

Legal Complaint Vs Breaches of Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act

Salmon firms bid to block diseased photos

The latest damning information on Mowi's Rum salmon farm was slipped out on 10 September 2019 via the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate:

The Fish Health Inspectorate's 'Case Information' for Mowi's salmon farm off the Isle of Rum on 9 July 2019 (starts at p10 of the PDF) includes:

Mowi's disease and mortality problems during 2019 are not limited to their Rum operation or farmed salmon. Data on cleaner fish mortalities between 2013 and 2019 is hidden away in various Fish Health Inspectorate 'Case Information' files. For example, by searching the June 2019 data we now know that 10,000 lumpfish died at Mowi's salmon farm at Port Na Cro.

Mowi's salmon farm at Bagh Dail Nan Ceann (Bay of the Dead Heads) also detailed mortality and disease problems in cleaner fish in the FHI June 2019 report (with "craters disease" cited).

When Scottish Salmon Watch visited Mowi's Bagh Dail Nan Ceann salmon farm in early July 2019 there were certainly visible health challenges with dead and dying lumpfish littering the surface of the one cage visited.

Here's a Tweet:

Read more about the welfare nightmare for cleaner fish via Fish that eat lice off farmed salmon suffer, says report

With rising Summer temperatures and warmer weather, the alarm bells are ringing that 2019 could be the worst year on record for mortalities and diseases on Scottish salmon farms. Salmon Business reported in May:

Mowi is all too aware of the risks of diseases writing in their Integrated Annual Report 2018 (published on 27 March 2019) that "continued disease problems may also attract negative media attention and public concerns" .

For more data on diseases and mortalities please read a report published by Scottish Salmon Watch in March 2019 including Fish Health Inspectorate 'Case Information' on Marine Harvest salmon farms during 2018:

Little wonder that Marine Harvest changed their name to Mowi on 1 January 2019 (despite objections from the Mowinckel family in Norway and indigenous artist Ernie Smith – whose tradition name is Mowisaht – in Canada). As Intrafish reported in March 2019:

Mowi (before they changed their name from Marine Harvest) officially reported over 1.6 million mortalities in Scotland between March 2017 and November 2018 in 101 separate incidents – including 520,171 dead salmon at Marine Harvest's Inchmore Hatchery in August 2018 and 140,488 dead salmon at Marine Harvest's salmon farm at Eilean Grianain (Carradale) in Kilbrannan Sound in March 2018.

The mortality data published by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate is available online here – and details 101 mortality events for Mowi (Marine Harvest) sites including reports of Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS), Anaemia, Piscine Reovirus (PRV), Pasteurella skyensis, Proliferative Gill Disease (PGD), Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD), Pancreas Disease (PD), complex gill issues and deaths due to lice infestation, physical damage, handling, oxygen supply failure, chemical treatments (Hydrogen Peroxide/H202, Azamethiphos/Salmosan and Deltamethrin/Alphamax) and Thermolicer mechanical treatments:

In view of such horrific disease problems it's not surprising that Mowi's salmon farming production fell 36% in 2018 (from 60,186 tonnes in 2017 to 38,444 tonnes in 2018).

Mowi's mortality and disease problems account in large part for the dramatic 21% fall in Scottish salmon farming production – with 2018 data forecast to be 39,000 tonnes lower than that reported in 2017!

Data junkies should keep an eye out for the Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2018 (scheduled for publication at 9.30am on Monday 30 September – read online here). There will be new data on mortality rates – reported by the Scottish Government as more palatable 'survival rates' – with the 2017 survey (published in October 2018) reporting an annual mortality rate in Shetland of 23.5% and a staggering 30.3% annual mortality in the Western Isles. Total annual mortality for Scottish salmon farming is reported at 20.9% – that equates to perhaps 15 to 20 million dead farmed salmon although the industry are not obliged to report actual numbers after successfully lobbying that public disclosure would be commercially damaging!