Protest "Poses Serious Risk to Our Salmon" Claim Scottish Sea Farms - Who's Calling Who "Dangerous"?

The waters around Scotland's lice-infested and disease-ridden salmon farms are certainly heating up with protests planned for this weekend. Scottish Sea Farms claimed in a letter dated 22 August 2019 that "a water-based protest poses a serious risk to our salmon stocks, potentially breaching biosecurity protocol and causing stress to the fish, both of which can have devastating consequences on animal welfare". Scottish Sea Farms invited Scottish Salmon Watch to "find less dangerous means of expressing your opinion" and referred to "several instances of people getting into unexpected difficulty, sometimes with fatal results".

Andrew Holder of Extinction Rebellion Oban commented on Facebook (26 August 2019):

Some staff at Scottish Sea Farms have welcomed Scottish Salmon Watch to visit (even though they need to wash their mouth out with soap and water).

Read about our protests on 31 August & 1 September online via Swim for Salmon, Cetaceans, Lobsters & Seals!

Judging by Scottish Salmon Watch's visit to Shuna last month, it appears that Scottish Sea Farms can also rely on Police Scotland to act as a private security warning us off the water near the salmon farm.

Scottish Sea Farms know all too well the "fatal results" of their salmon farming operations. In 2011, BBC News reported:

In 2012, BBC News reported that the fine for Scottish Sea Farms had been reduced on appeal from £600,000 to £333,335.

When Scottish Salmon Watch visited a salmon farm operated by Mowi in nearby Loch Linnhe in July 2019 it triggered an investigation by the Health & Safety Executive following a tip-off from Animal Concern.

Even a fine of £333,335 is a drop in the ocean to such a huge company. The latest accounts filed in October 2018 with Companies House by Scottish Sea Farms (formerly called Golden Sea Produce and Hydro Seafoods) reported a turnover of £200 million and a profit of £62 million in 2017.

Scottish Sea Farms is wholly Norwegian-owned and Scotland's #2 salmon farming company (after Norwegian-owned Mowi). As Scottish Salmon Watch's 'Scottish Scamon' report stated in February 2019:

Scottish Salmon Watch reported in May 2019:

The Ferret reported in February 2019:

The "fatal results" of Scottish Sea Farms is only too clear when Scottish Government inspectors actually visit their disease-ridden salmon farms (one of the reasons why Scottish Sea Farms is reluctant for protestors to come close to their operations and why 43,000 SumOfUs petitioners are calling on Marine Scotland to conduct immediate unannounced inspections of all salmon farms).

Here's some of the photos taken by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate of diseased salmon farmed by Scottish Sea Farms.

Given the gruesome nature of salmon farming it is not surprising that lawyers acting for Scottish Sea Farms threatened legal action against the disclosure of damning photos.

Thankfully for the general public, the Scottish Government ignored the threats by Scottish Sea Farms and published the photos anyway.

Earlier this month, the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate published further damning data of disease on salmon farms during 2019. Here's mortality events at Scottish Sea Farms reported in 2019 (in most cases the numbers of mortalities are not yet provided).

AGD = Amoebic Gill Disease

CMS = Cardiomyopathy Syndrome

Here's the worst cases since 2017 (note this is not a comprehensive list of mortalities since mortality numbers are not reported after lobbying from the salmon farming industry who claimed disclosure would be commercially damaging):

PGD = Proliferative Gill Disease

Disease data accessed via Freedom of Information in 2017 and 2018 also revealed the following cases at Scottish Sea Farms:

The mortality events at Scottish Sea Farms in Loch Kishorn were featured by the BBC's One Show in December 2017 via 'The Dead Salmon Run' – watch online here

An analysis of 2018 disease and mortality data published by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate was published by Scottish Salmon Watch in March 2019.

Fatal incidents involving Scottish Sea Farms featured prominently:

Watch a video shot by a drone in July 2019 at the Scottish Sea Farms salmon farm in Shuna – showing farmed salmon crashing into the sides of the cages – online here

Scottish Salmon Farms Cruelty from Andrew Holder on Vimeo.

Here's more video reports from Scottish Salmon Watch's visit to the Scottish Sea Farms salmon farm at Shuna in July 2019.

When Scottish Salmon Watch visited the salmon farm operated by Scottish Sea Farms in Loch Spelve in August 2018 we were shocked at the levels of lice infestation – of both farmed salmon and cleaner fish. Watch video footage online here

Scottish Salmon Watch also filmed dead cleaner fish at the Scottish Sea Farms processing plant in South Shian.

The Sunday Herald reported in 2012 on the dangerous nature of the Scottish Sea Farms processing plant at South Shian.

The "fatal results" of Scottish Sea Farms can also be seen in published data on seals killed – with Scottish Sea Farms named and shamed as Scottish salmon's #1 seal killer.

In a letter to Police Scotland dated 21 July 2019, Scottish Salmon Watch wrote:

The lethal nature of salmon farming extends to cetaceans with the killing of a humpback whale at a salmon farm operated by Scottish Sea Farms in the Sound of Mull in 2014.

Read more via 'Salmon Farming Kills Whales'

The Acoustic Deterrent Devices used by Scottish Sea Farms have also been shown by peer-reviewed scientific research to have impacts on the hearing of cetaceans – especially the harbour porpoise – at distances of up to 25km.

The impact of the salmon farming operations of Scottish Sea Farms on the sea-bed is environmentally destructive. Here's video footage shot under a Leroy-owned salmon farm in Norway.

Waste impacts under salmon farms operated by Scottish Sea Farms have been assessed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency as "Unsatisfactory" a staggering 211 times.

Scottish Sea Farms has breached SEPA's Environmental Quality Standards for Emamectin benzoate in sediments under salmon farms. For example, here's a breach in Loch Spelve:

And a breach by Scottish Sea Farms at Tanera in the Summer Isles:

Here's video footage of maggot-infested salmon shot in September 2018 at the Tanera salmon farm operated by Scottish Sea Farms:

Scottish Sea Farms has reported the use of the toxic chemical Azamethiphos (a known lobster-killer) over 300 times.

Scottish Sea Farms has reported to SEPA the use of the lobster-killing chemical Emamectin benzoate over 1,000 times.

Scottish Sea Farms has reported to SEPA the use of the toxic chemical Deltamethrin nearly 300 times.

Note that chemical use via so-called well boats is NOT included in this data set and is instead hidden away via SEPA's 'Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory' which does not even have data for 2018 yet let alone 2019.

Nor is data on the use of the toxic chemical Hydrogen Peroxide (or antibiotics) included in the data-base – the damning information only disclosed via Freedom of Information.

Hydrogen peroxide has been shown by peer-reviewed scientific research to be toxic to seaweed and shellfish such as shrimp. Here's a photo of tanks of Hydrogen peroxide at Dunstaffnage marina in August 2019 with toxic chemicals destined for Scottish Sea Farms.