Lousy standards
Farmed salmon , Issue 1498 FISH farmers at the Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) are having a bumper harvest this year – at least as far as awards are concerned.

The company was a finalist in the prestigious Seafood Excellence Global Awards, which “recognise the best seafood products from around the world” for its “Tartan Salmon Label Rouge Royal Mile Cut”. And more recently it was named as a finalist in three categories (primary producer of the year, business of the year and export business of the year) at the annual Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards 2019. (Su Cox, director of sales and communications at SSC, is also vice-chair of Scotland Food & Drink, but the merits of the applicants were, of course, judged by an independent panel.)

The latest prize news is that SSC is up for Business in the Community’s responsible business of the year award for 2019, with a big do at the Royal Albert Hall in July where the winner will be announced.

Roag fish
These prestigious nominations speak of excellence in every respect – but for marine biologists, ecologists and concerned locals in the Clyde and Outer Hebrides where SSC operates, the company falls disappointingly below the standards these gongs promote.

Last year, wild salmon in the Outer Hebrides were found to be infested with an epidemic of sea lice. When photographer Corin Smith went to a nearby SSC farm in Loch Roag, he filmed appallingly damaged salmon with their flesh eaten raw by the parasites. After the footage went public, the regulators at Marine Scotland sent warning letters to four SSC farms for failing to control the lice.

Last month, drone footage showed hundreds of tonnes of salmon being disposed of at SSC’s farm in Upper Loch Fyne after an algae bloom that SSC blamed on the weather, but marine biologists say is also affected in part by the cocktail of chemicals fed to the farmed fish. These chemicals include neurotoxins, biocides (hydrogen peroxide) and other pesticides. When divers have examined the sea bed beneath various fish farms, they have found disturbing evidence of the destruction of all other sea life.

Untreated excrement
Campaigners on the Isle of Arran are now standing against a new SSC salmon farm the size of four football pitches that is being proposed for their shores. The salmon-filled cages and industrial farming equipment will discharge untreated excrement and food waste that campaigners say is the equivalent in tonnage to sewage from a town of 14,000 humans. The company already has 13 fish farms on the Clyde.

SSC’s Lochlander range of salmon boasts that it is “naturally raised and sea loch fresh”. No mention of sea lice and tonnes of dead fish. Still, roll on awards season!