Mass Mortalities & Disease Ravage Scottish Salmon Farms (& It's Going to Get Worse!)

Damning new data on mass mortalities and infectious diseases on Scotland's salmon farms was slipped out late last week (20 September) by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate. Pancreas Disease, Cardiomyopathy Syndrome and Amoebic Gill Disease were cited as the biggest killers along with mortalities caused by mechanical and freshwater treatments (expect even more problems over the coming months as Mowi – Scotland's largest salmon farmer decimated by disease problems – predicts a "painful September and October for the salmon industry in Scotland").

The Excel spreadsheet includes 50 new 'Mortality Event Reports' since Scottish Salmon Watch reported last month (new data is published on what appears to be a monthly basis by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate). The worst hit companies are Norwegian-owned Mowi, Norwegian-owned Scottish Sea Farms and Swiss/Ukrainian-owned The Scottish Salmon Company (which is expected to be sold by the end of the month).

Mowi's salmon farm in Craig an Tsagairt in Loch Hourn (famously promoted by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver who was called a 'whore' for promoting farmed salmon) reported "Fish with bleeding gills, 'collision damage' and heart damage" in July 2019. Another Mowi salmon farm off the Isle of Rum "lost approximately 45%" of their fish in one cage and reported a "Swimbladder issue and mechanical damage" in July 2019 with over 37,000 dead farmed salmon in June.

PD = Pancreas Disease

CMS = Cardiomyopathy Syndrome

AGD = Amoebic Gill Disease

Note that the mortality data published by the Scottish Government is NOT a comprehensive list and total numbers of dead farmed salmon have not been published since 2012 when the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation successfully lobbied against disclosure arguing that publication would be commercially damaging.

The mortality data adds to the 'Case Information' on infectious diseases, pathogens, viruses and welfare problems published on a monthly basis by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate.

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 – including details of farmed salmon which were "blind" and "anorexic" with "physical damage" and over 40,000 mortalities.

Earlier this month video footage of diseased salmon spilling onto the A86 was published on Facebook on in The Daily Record.

Photographs taken by the Scottish Government's Fish Health Inspectorate – slipped out unnoticed in April 2019 – reveal severely damaged farmed salmon at The Scottish Salmon Company's Strondoir Bay salmon farm in Loch Fyne in February 2019.

And here's photos from a Fish Health Inspectorate visit to The Scottish Salmon Company's salmon farm at Portree in February 2019 – including "visible damage to the heads of fish", skeletal muscle necrosis, dermatitis, lesions "likely associated with mechanical damage", anorexia, bilateral exopthalmia, petechial haemorrhaging, salmon gill poxvirus, Neoparamoeba perurans (the causative agent of Amoebic Gill Disease), Paranculeospora theridon, Vibrio spp, Photobacterium sp and Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis virus:

Photos of an inspection at the North Papa salmon farm operated by Norwegian-owned Grieg Seafood in March 2019 reveal physical damage "attributed to a recent Optilicer treatment".

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:

Scotland's largest salmon farming company, Norwegian-owned Mowi (formerly called Marine Harvest but changed in January 2019 due to negative consumer perceptions), is all too aware of the risks of diseases writing in their Integrated Annual Report 2018 (March 2019) that "continued disease problems may also attract negative media attention and public concerns".

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:

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.

And expect mortalities and disease to be much worse in the second half of 2019. As Scottish Salmon Watch warned last October:

Corin Smith knows only too well the bad smell coming from Scottish salmon farming – in 2018 he tracked mort trucks delivering tonnes of diseased salmon to a mort pit in North Uist. Watch the stomach-churning footage on the BBC One Show in September 2018 online here

In April 2019, The Ferret reported:

For more data on diseases and mortalities please read a report published by Scottish Salmon Watch in March 2019:

"Disease-ridden Scottish salmon is dead in the water," said Don Staniford, Director of Scottish Salmon Watch. "Shoppers should be revolted to find out that their Scottish salmon – marketed as 'healthy' and 'sustainable' – is sourced from factory feedlots riddled with parasites, pathogens, viruses and infectious diseases not to mention serious welfare abuse. Scottish Salmon Watch believes the salmon farming industry is guilty of breaching the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 in relation to 'Unnecessary Suffering' and 'Cruel Operations'. Consumers should avoid Scottish salmon like the proverbial plague."