Day 2: Isle of Arran, Scotland (follow our tour of Scotland & Ireland online here)
Photo: Alison Prince, editor of Voice for Arran and author of 'Trumpton', with Don Staniford
"When The Arran Voice first blew the whistle on infectious diseases killing tens of thousands of farmed salmon at the Lamlash Bay farm there was a bit of a stushie," said Alison Prince, editor of the Voice for Arran (formerly the Arran Voice). "The newspaper was first alterted by concerned members of the public who were worried about the stench coming from the salmon farm. We published photos of the maggot-infested farmed salmon in mort bins piled up at the site."
The Collins Dictionary defines "stushie" as follows:
Alison Prince is a giant of childrens' literature and is certainly not afraid to take on the adults in a "bit of a stushie". She is the author of the children's TV show 'Trumpton' which spawned Half Man Biscuit's cult classic 'The Trumpton Riots'.
“If
anyone is thinking of asking me how to get started, please don’t,” said Alison
in an interview on Trumpton.
“There’s only one thing I can say, and
that is, Just get on and do it.”
Watch an interview with Alison Prince online here
Dr. Sally Campbell and her husband Dr. John Campbell, who live overlooking the Lamlash Bay salmon farm, are not afraid of causing a bit of a stushie either.
"We heard about the disease problems when people on the ferry started smelling the dead farmed salmon," said Dr. Sally Campbell. "Thanks to the community pulling together we successfully fought off plans by Marine Harvest to expand off the Isle of Arran. And we stopped the expansion of the Lamlash Bay site which is poorly flushed and has a history of pollution and disease problems."
Watch an interview with Dr. Sally Campbell – including her laughing at the joke of Ireland's 15,000 tonne "organic" salmon farm off Galway Bay – online here!
"Nobody had the decency to tell the residents of Lamlash that there was a serious proble," said Dr. Campbell. "So we're very concerned."
"There's a complete lack of information going to locals unless you delve much deeper," said Howard Wood who has dived under the Lamlash Bay farm since it was first established in the 1980s. "In fact, the first time there was a mass mortality it was ferry workers that said there were lorries full of stinky fish. I think local communities need to be aware of what is happening on salmon farms."
Watch a video report "Salmon Farm Disease Disaster in Lamlash Bay, Arran"
The stushie over the Scottish Salmon Company's farm in Lamlash Bay has rumbled on for years – dating back to when Marine Harvest, then Pan Fish and then Lighthouse Caledonia operated the site. In 2008, The Arran Voice reported that: "Eight large containers of maggot-ridden dead
salmon stood waiting for disposal on the slipway at St Molio's fish farm
in Lamlash Bay."
"The photographs printed here were taken less than a week ago, as
their digital date confirms, and they offer direct evidence that
mortalities among the penned fish are still occurring," wrote Alison
Prince. "A disease epidemic ravaged stocks last year, and statistics
obtained from SEPA under the Freedom of Information Act confirm that
from October to December 2007, a shocking total of over 300,000 fish
died."
The Arran Voice also reported in May 2008:
"Lorry-loads of dead fish were seen leaving Arran during October and
November 2007, but due to ongoing investigations, full details of the
disease have been unavailable until now. Voice research found that the
reported symptoms matched those suffered by fish infected with
Proliferative Gill Disease, but the fish-farm owners would not confirm
this."
The Norwegian giant Marine Harvest
farmed in Lamlash Bay for two decades until selling out first to the Norwegian
company Pan Fish in 2007 and then further Norwegian money in the shape of Lighthouse Caledonia who re-branded themselves again in 2010 as the Scottish Salmon
Company (a company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with shareholders including a who's who of Norwegian banks and Norwegian investors).
Something fishy is going on in Scottish salmon farming with the spread of Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) which was only officially reported in October 2011 when 279,000 farmed salmon died at the Lamlash Bay salmon farm. However, the Lamlash Bay site has been experiencing gill disease issues since at least 2007 – when they were variously listed as Proliferative Gill Inflammation (PGI) and Chlamydia. The Arran Voice reported in November 2007:
The Arran Voice reported in May 2008 that a nasty dose of Chlamydia was killing the farmed salmon at Lamlash Bay:
Data disclosed by
Marine Scotland in September 2012 following a Freedom of
Information request by GAAIA detailed a sordid disease history at the Lamlash Bay salmon farm including Chlamydia, Amoebic Gill Disease, gill problems and Epitheliocistis:
Photos disclosed by Marine Scotland reveal disease problems at Lamlash Bay throughout 2012:
Read
the disease documents in full online here
It's no wonder then that the public is becoming sick and tired of Scottish farmed salmon which is becoming so diseased that it belongs in the bin not in your supermarket shopping basket.
The Sunday Herald
(28 October) reported:
Read more via "FDA Health Warning for Scottish Farmed Salmon"
Watch a video report from wind-swept Scotland – online here
Read about Day 1 of our trip around Scotland via “Ground Zero in Scotland’s Salmon Wars!”
Next stop is the Isle of Mull for a public hearing hosted by Argyll & Bute Council on the Scottish Salmon Company's plans for a new super-sized salmon farm off Gometra.
"In my view, if there is anywhere you shouldn’t put a salmon farm, it is in the Staffa Archipelago, the wildlife is important, the landscape is important," said Roc Sandford in an interview with The Scotsman newspaper (17 March 2012). "I think this is an internationally valuable resource and it needs our protection."
The Scottish Salmon Company, aided and abetted by the local newspaper The Oban Times which is part of a media group which publishes salmon farming titles, is desperately mounting a PR charm offensive. The Oban Times reported this week (31 October):
Roc Sandford said the fish farm would "devastate the experience of living on the island" and if it is constructed he would "fight until it is taken away".
"Thousands of people come from all over the world to look at this landscape," said Roc Sandford in an interview with the BBC's 'Costing the Earth' show (11 September).
"This is the one place in the world you shouldn't put a factory fish farm."
"It's a wild landscape and to have something just popping out of the sea with
the sheer size that it is, is just not we want here" says resident Rhoda Munro.
Tune in for more news from the stushie at the Scottish Salmon Company tomorrow (5 November) at the public hearing on the Isle of Mull.
Read more background via "Residents of tiny island to fight plan for salmon farm" (The Herald, 26 August)
Global opposition is certainly building to the disease-ridden salmon farming industry. Elena Edwards, a campaigner for Wild Salmon First
visiting from Canada, said: "May the global voices for wild salmon
unite to deliver the message to Norway that Norwegian salmon farms are
not welcome and must go!"
"The flag and declaration will be travelling to Scotland and Ireland to
support efforts to stop Norwegian owned salmon farms from killing wild
salmon," continued Edwards. "The more names on the flag the stronger
the message which will be brought to Norway next year. Your voice
matters!"
For our full itinerary in Scotland & Ireland please visit online here
Scotland (2-21 November)
2nd & 3rd: Isle of Arran
4th: Oban
5th: Isle of Mull
6th: Firth of Lorne
7th: Loch Sunart & Loch Linnhe
8th: Isle of Skye (public meeting at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Armadale)
9th: Isle of Skye
10th & 11th: Loch Alsh, Loch Shieldaig and Loch Ewe
12th: Wester Ross & Loch Duart (public meeting in Ullapool – download poster online here)
13th: Loch Roag & Lewis
14th – 16th: Harris
17th & 18th: Loch Duart & Sutherland
19th: Perth
20th & 21st: Edinburgh
Ireland (22-30 November)
22nd: Belfast to Limerick
23nd: Bantry Bay
24th: Aran Islands/Galway Bay
25th: Connemara
26th: Clew Bay
27th: Clare Island & Donegal Bay
28th: Mulroy Bay & Lough Swilly
29th & 30th: Dublin
