On a similar theme. There have been ‘an unprecedented influx of long-dead Cuvier’s Beaked Whales up and down the west coast of Scotland’ including 5 on Tiree, 2 on Coll, 1 on Islay, 1 between Tiree and Mull, 12 on Outer Hebrides (plus a Sperm Whale) and at least 6 – 8 found in Ireland,
Source: circular e-mails from John Bowler, Malcolm Ogilvie and Yvonne.
The Scottish salmon farming industry is an industry that has gotten away with the wrost excesses of intensive factory farming for too long. Maybe it’s too far away, ‘up there’ in the Scottish Highlands and Islands? And it seems that too many supposedly independent organisations are willing to collude in its malpractice, presumably mostly because of the jobs (and votes) it claims to support.
A recent report by Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland exposed how in 2016, the Scottish Salmon Company reported that about 300,000 salmon (with an average weight of 623g), had escaped from its Scadabay farm on Harris. This massive loss was confirmed in its financial reports, SEPA’s biomass records, Marine Scotland’s Annual Production Survey, Scotland’s Aquaculture website and various industry websites. However, in early 2018, just as the Scottish Parliament’s Environment Climate Change and Land Reform (ECCLR) Committee was beginning to investigate the Environmental Impact of Salmon Farming, the escapes database on the official Scotland’s Aquaculture website was amended to record an escape of zero fish at Scadabay in June 2016. The result was, of course, to disguise the true extent of the problem the industry has with escapes. And making it easier for the Scottish Government to plough on with its plan to almost double the numbers of fish farmed in this way by 2030.
As the video demonstrates, the RSPCA is also being influenced – its 2018 Welfare Standards allow for the use of ADDs, despite evidence that they have a significant detrimental impact on wild cetaceans. and despite the fact that comparable organisations elsewhere (such as the RSPC Australia) explicitly forbid the use of ADDs in their own best practice standards (RSPCAus standards state flatly, ‘
Control methods that involve acoustic deterrent devices must not be used’.
We are off to the Outer Hebrides in a couple of weeks.
Many of the once almost pristine coastal views, especially on the more remote, sheltered, eastern side of the islands, that I first knew over thirty years ago, are now greatly compromised by the
presence of fish farms.
This purely visual pollution, however, is nothing compared to the problems beneath the surface.
Cuvier’s Beaked Whale is, I believe, the deepest diving mammal on record ( not a lot of people know
that), maybe ,especially with the Sperm Whale record, the problem originated at depth ?.
Hopefully, having never seen a washed up whale before, there may be something left when we get
there.
The Salmon industry needs to step up and get its act together (here we go again, lazyness and costs vs conservation) or it has the potential to have a negative impact on wildlife tourism. Shooting competitors is not the way to address the problem (remind you of other unscientific culls).
Then there’s the issue of chemicals and medication used by the industry ….
I’ve just remembered that in 1990 I listened to a talk from what must have been a rep from NCC Scotland at the time who related to us an incident where estate workers had strapped a spring trap to the end of a long pole and were using this to snag herons sitting on their nests at a heronry. Very credible source for the story and I’m pretty sure the incident happened in relation to a salmon farm. In the early days it was the ‘sporting’ estates who were big fans of salmon farms – when groups like FoE Scotland were already raising serious concerns about them. Now of course it looks they aren’t good news for salmon and sea trout fishing and by god haven’t things changed!
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On a similar theme. There have been ‘an unprecedented influx of long-dead Cuvier’s Beaked Whales up and down the west coast of Scotland’ including 5 on Tiree, 2 on Coll, 1 on Islay, 1 between Tiree and Mull, 12 on Outer Hebrides (plus a Sperm Whale) and at least 6 – 8 found in Ireland,
Source: circular e-mails from John Bowler, Malcolm Ogilvie and Yvonne.
The Scottish salmon farming industry is an industry that has gotten away with the wrost excesses of intensive factory farming for too long. Maybe it’s too far away, ‘up there’ in the Scottish Highlands and Islands? And it seems that too many supposedly independent organisations are willing to collude in its malpractice, presumably mostly because of the jobs (and votes) it claims to support.
A recent report by Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland exposed how in 2016, the Scottish Salmon Company reported that about 300,000 salmon (with an average weight of 623g), had escaped from its Scadabay farm on Harris. This massive loss was confirmed in its financial reports, SEPA’s biomass records, Marine Scotland’s Annual Production Survey, Scotland’s Aquaculture website and various industry websites. However, in early 2018, just as the Scottish Parliament’s Environment Climate Change and Land Reform (ECCLR) Committee was beginning to investigate the Environmental Impact of Salmon Farming, the escapes database on the official Scotland’s Aquaculture website was amended to record an escape of zero fish at Scadabay in June 2016. The result was, of course, to disguise the true extent of the problem the industry has with escapes. And making it easier for the Scottish Government to plough on with its plan to almost double the numbers of fish farmed in this way by 2030.
As the video demonstrates, the RSPCA is also being influenced – its 2018 Welfare Standards allow for the use of ADDs, despite evidence that they have a significant detrimental impact on wild cetaceans. and despite the fact that comparable organisations elsewhere (such as the RSPC Australia) explicitly forbid the use of ADDs in their own best practice standards (RSPCAus standards state flatly, ‘
Control methods that involve acoustic deterrent devices must not be used’.
We are off to the Outer Hebrides in a couple of weeks.
Many of the once almost pristine coastal views, especially on the more remote, sheltered, eastern side of the islands, that I first knew over thirty years ago, are now greatly compromised by the
presence of fish farms.
This purely visual pollution, however, is nothing compared to the problems beneath the surface.
Cuvier’s Beaked Whale is, I believe, the deepest diving mammal on record ( not a lot of people know
that), maybe ,especially with the Sperm Whale record, the problem originated at depth ?.
Hopefully, having never seen a washed up whale before, there may be something left when we get
there.
The Salmon industry needs to step up and get its act together (here we go again, lazyness and costs vs conservation) or it has the potential to have a negative impact on wildlife tourism. Shooting competitors is not the way to address the problem (remind you of other unscientific culls).
Then there’s the issue of chemicals and medication used by the industry ….
I’ve just remembered that in 1990 I listened to a talk from what must have been a rep from NCC Scotland at the time who related to us an incident where estate workers had strapped a spring trap to the end of a long pole and were using this to snag herons sitting on their nests at a heronry. Very credible source for the story and I’m pretty sure the incident happened in relation to a salmon farm. In the early days it was the ‘sporting’ estates who were big fans of salmon farms – when groups like FoE Scotland were already raising serious concerns about them. Now of course it looks they aren’t good news for salmon and sea trout fishing and by god haven’t things changed!