A message to Long Live Loch Linnhe

I’m writing to offer some moral and a little practical support to those worried, as we all should be, about the virtually uncontrolled expansion of fish farming on the west coast, with Loch Linnhe now under the most dreadful threat from units many times the size of anything we’ve seen to date. 

Some of us have been there already, our areas having been earlier victims of an alien, cruel industry that has taken commercial hypocrisy into the stratosphere by marketing products on the back of images of a wild, native species that is verging towards extinction. In this post I’ll offer some brief pointers, as someone who lives in one of the first inshore areas  to have been threatened, the interconnected waters of Seil,  Shuna and Melfort, most of which planners treat as open sea, despite it’s very obviously bring one largish sea loch. 

When the farms first came to our area we felt isolated and ignorant, but soon learned that we weren’t alone. I was a founder of the saveseilsound campaign group, which campaigned for ten years from 2011. Although our original target, a fish farm at Port na MòrachdPort na Morachd near Ardmaddy, no longer exists, the area is now suffering under tonnages we could never have anticipated would be consented. There are now lots of groups, linking together, sharing research and networking online.

The first thing to understand is that Scottish politicians of all parties, including nowadays most of the Greens, see fish farming not only as  a magic solution, but almost the only one, to employment issues on the west coast. During my time campaigning only a very few took the trouble to inform themselves, certainly Claudia Beamish and perhaps one or two Tories, who outside politics sometimes actually own salmon rivers. In this game, pick people with knowledge regardless of their political colour! 

Our MPs and MPSs have got their briefings from, literally, generations of civil servants totally sold on the industry. “Feeding the World” is a totally dishonest slogan often used. Try telling that to residents of African coastal states, whose local fisheries have been destroyed by supertrawlers hoovering up what the industry terms “trash fish”. 

Don’t believe for a second that Marine Scotland are an independent body; their officials are mainstream civil servants, whose next promotion will depend on not upsetting the leaders. I have sat in meetings where they patently controlled scientists itching to tell us the truth. This isn’t guesswork; our group received confidential briefings from two former government scientists, pensioned off when their research didn’t suit the agenda.

Currently SEPA aren’t much help to the environment, either. After their entire computer systems were crashed, by someone still untraced, they had to stop inspections during covid. Losing the boss suddenly didn’t help. For a while we had high hopes, when they invited local resident groups for meetings and I felt we were developing good relations.

While SEPA have no idea who crashed their system, one has suspicions. The industry has form, for example in placing illegal tracking devices on the cars of two prominent, very skilled and courageous activists, Don Stanford and Corin Smith. Operating alone, often before dawn, takes guts.

And the biggest company here, MOWI, have taken a SLAPP court case against Don, which he’s vigorously defending with help from an extremely decent bunch of hard working young lawyers and supporters. You’ll find my articles about SLAPPs on yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com and Bylines Scotland. MOWI is an international giant, largely owned by John Fredriksen, Norwegian by birth and a Cypriot passport holder, who lives in a castle in Mayfair. Google him!

We are witnessing a Twentyfirst Century land grab, effectively the sale (in legal terms long term leasing, as they aren’t allowed to sell public property) by our guardians, Crown Estate Scotland.  The only thing Scottish about this industry is the seabed, the public asset which they allow to be used as a dumping ground for fish faeces, toxins such as pesticides, copper and zinc, and antibiotics. Not to forget Emamectin Benzoate, marketed by its American makers as SLICE, which stays active on the seabed for years and kills all crustaceans, lobsters, shrimps and crabs as well as the target sealice. Industry apologists, such as laird in waiting Tavish Scott, blame  troubles, such as declining wild salmon numbers and the massive deaths of caged fish, on increasing sea temperatures, but shouldn't that itself be a warning that the industry can’t last?

So, be warned, it’s not just the water around the cages that’s murky! We mustn’t give up on our environment, but what can local residents do?

For anyone wanting to get involved, first look at what you can contribute. As one gets drawn more into the horrors of industrial fishing practices and finds fish farms deliberately poisoning the seabed, more and more time gets taken up in reading and research. Learn enough to understand what’s happening, but don’t try to reach the standards set by some of our champions, such as John Aitchison of Friends of the Sound of Jura, whose efforts and depth of knowledge are amazing. Leave the diving and image taking to those who can do it, but look at what skills you have, with computers, with words, whatever.

Most important is simply - spread the word! Over the years, I’ve become brave enough to tell people that I’d rather not eat farmed salmon (the real stuff is virtually unaffordable). A ten minute conversation with a friend pointing out that Lochmuir is fictional like Brigadoon, that “sustainable” doesn’t mean anything, works wonders. We see the word “sustainable” used constantly - check if it means “environmentally”, “socially” or just “economically”. Believe it or not, the industry mixes all three. Nor does “organic” mean anything when farmed salmon are concerned. Successful complaints have been made to the Advertising Standards Authority about that. The biggest joke is RSPCA Assured; this huge English charity doesn’t operate here in Scotland, apart from raising funds, with huge subscriptions to this scheme from the aquaculture industry.

Let's hope this is the end for Acoustic Deterrent Devices!

Last week saw an absolutely massive victory for all those who have campaigned for years to stop the illegal harassment of whales, dolphins and porpoise in our inshore waters. Environmental Standards Scotland have produced a report confirming not only that fish farm companies have been committing offences by their use of seal screeching devices but that they have been doing so with the knowledge and the tacit approval of Marine Scotland.

Let that sink in.

Marine Scotland, a branch of the civil service in Scotland and the governmental body in sole charge of protecting our marine environment, has been deliberately and cynically turning a blind eye to active criminality by the largely foreign owned companies who use our waters for the industrial production of salmon.

On 25 November 2019 a group of concerned citizens, all members of Coastal Communities Network, met with senior civil servants at Marine Scotland and sat in disbelief as we were lied to. In a nutshell:

(first) the use of a seal screecher (ADD) in Scotland is illegal in the absence of a licence from Marine Scotland

(second) licences cannot be granted, because their use inevitably “harasses or disturbs” protected species such as whales, dolphins or porpoise. (Only where there is no alternative will a licence be granted, e.g. temporary harbour works. Fish farms have other options.)

(third) Marine Scotland responded to this by turning a blind eye to wholesale criminality.

My subsequent letter to the Lord Advocate was passed to the very civil servant who spoke at that meeting!

Huge thanks to David Ainsley and Jean Ainsley at Sealife Adventures, also to Guy Linley-Adams and Coastal Communities Network.

More about this can be found in previous posts on this blog.

The full ESS report can be accessed here:

Environmental Standards Reporthttps://www.environmentalstandards.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Environmental-Standards-Scotland-ADD-Informal-Resolution-Report.pdf

PS For the curious: Does anyone wonder if there was any pressure put on those civil servants to tell lies by a certain Scottish Government Minister?

Fish Farmers resorting to some extravagant Prose!

An article has just appeared in Fish Farmer Magazine, written by the “leading political journalist” Hamish Macdonell, (ex London Times), which shouldn’t be allowed to pass without comment.

Illustrated by a photograph of two operatives clinging precariously onto the side of a fish cage, without any obvious PPE in sight, it contains some very strange statements, which cry out for some supporting evidence.

The piece begins as follows:

“It didn’t take them long. Almost as soon as the lockdown restrictions started to lift, the anti-fish farm campaigners were back, crowding onto yachts without a thought for social distancing and setting off towards Scotland's salmon farms.

They then started on their usual antics, trying to climb on to pens, filming staff, diving underneath nets and sending drones up to grab video footage from the sky.”

Let’s just picture the scene. A family of what Hamish calls “yachties” have just arrived at the marina in their first trip out of lockdown, as they motor out in their Bavaria 46 father announces the destination for today …. climbing onto fish pens … Really?

“Yet we now have activists, not just willing to break all Covid-related rules designed to protect the population, but apparently desperate to do so. They seem to think nothing of putting salmon farm employees in danger by clambering all over their places of work with no protective equipment and not a thought for whatever they might be bringing with them.”

Break all the rules, Hamish? Every one? Clambering all over?

Let me take a step back from this and tell you a little about what I know, from the perspective of a retired solicitor, former tribunal chair, not exactly renowned for community activism. I am an enthusiast for law and order, but as it happens I also like to see the rules being obeyed by everyone subject to them.

In the ten years or so during which I have been actively monitoring the expansion of fish farming in mid Argyll I have noted thousands of breaches of the rules by fish farming companies, which have been unearthed under the Environmental Information regulations by researchers including myself. Since the commencement of the specialist Crown Office Wild Life and Environmental Crime Unit in 2011 countless events and incidents have been referred to them. How many successful prosecutions have resulted? Not one!

A fairly common practice is for fish farm operators to plan for a significant percentage of the salmon to die of disease or sea lice damage during their incarceration, by stocking the cages with more fish than the permitted biomass limit would suggest. If enough fish don’t die as predicted the result is overstocking.

However, the entire system of regulation currently depends on self reporting by the operating companies. Because of the fundamental principle against self incrimination in criminal law, the reports filed by companies simply aren’t acceptable as evidence in court. When SEPA send in reports to the Crown Office they simply can't do anything.

In the absence of independent inspection we have seen certain individuals going out and collecting footage of what’s going on in and under our west coast fish farms. I know some of them and can assure anyone reading this that they don’t conform to the image usually conjured up by the term “yachty”. Those whom I know are, mainly, possessed of marine biology knowledge and qualifications, courageous, extremely fit and driven purely by commitment. They are not, as they are often accused of being, in the pay of mysterious, usually said to be American, big money people.

To date the efforts of this small band of brave men and women have achieved quite a bit. One image, of a deep pile of dead fish, roughly half an acre in extent rotting away in open air in the Outer Hebrides, went viral and drew attention to the dark side of the industry, the enormous waste that occurs annually when viruses claim, in some cases, up to 40% of stock.

This last weekend drone footage from Loch Creran shows some of the mortality and pollution that results from the Thermolicer machines now active right along the coast. There is no sign of the operatives on the ship being harassed, or even aware of the footage being taken.

But isn’t this illegal? Hamish seems to state that it is. Let’s deconstruct what he says.

“This is a difficult area, not least because our rural police service is stretched and it takes time to react to the often swift interventions of some of more mobile critics. …”

This implies that the activities of activists breaches the criminal law, otherwise what’s it got to do with the police? We do know that fish farm companies have taken to calling the police on a few occasions. Correct me if I’m wrong, anyone, but I’m sure we would have heard if any prosecution had resulted. On the other hand I am aware that complaints have been made to Police Scotland about powers of individual officers being exceeded.

“Also, the law is quite clear. The rights of navigation allow journeys from any single point to another on the sea, except if there is a structure in the way (like a fish farm), in which case, the marine user has to go around the structure – not try to stop, tie up, clamber on board or dive underneath it.”

Yes indeed, we, as members of the public, all have the constitutional right to use the surface of the sea for purposes that include navigation and recreation. Fish farming results in our rights being obstructed, but the Court of Session has held, in the seminal case of Walford v David, that we must tolerate this and find our way safely around.

I don’t, personally, condone people “climbing aboard” but am not aware of any criminal law that might be broken, unless some damage were to be caused.

“The law against aggravated trespass on land (the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994) also covers a similar offence on marine structures.”

This is a statute that was introduced to control raves, not to clamp down on solitary activists with Gopros in canoes!

It is singularly unfortunate that Hamish’s article came out just before two major environmental catastrophes occurred.

Reports are coming in from Skye of a new, as yet unidentified virus that had reportedly killed a quarter of a million salmon so far. If it turns out to be a mutation of the cardiomyopathy syndrome that did something similar at the same time last year the environment will again be in trouble, thanks to aquaculture. Viral diseases don’t only affect farmed salmon, the real toll is the unseen mortality that goes on beneath the surface, with ailing fish being quickly eaten and thereby contributing to spread.

Secondly there are currently half a million salmon adrift from Carradale North, not a good look for an industry that is desperate, with government support, to install cages in more exposed areas, our inshore lochs being unable to cope with the pollution that is being inflicted upon them.

Finally, in the last few days news has been circulating about an utterly savage assault on an innocent member of the public, a local resident standing on a piece of open land, by a fish farm operator who seems to have felt he shouldn't have been there. I won’t say more at this stage, keep an eye on events locally!

Viruses and Atlantic Salmon

“Aquaculture escapees carried the most viruses of any group we studied and frequently had multiple infectious agents present. Our study looked at returning adult wild salmon, the survivors, so we weren’t able to see how out migrating smolt were affected as they passed near sea-cages in a critically vulnerable period of their life. This type of research will help us better understand the disease risks where wild and industrial fish overlap.” – Jonathan Carr, V.P. Research and Environment, Atlantic Salmon Federation

This week we have seen an extremely important report from the Atlantic Salmon Federation confirming what campaigners have known for years, but have to date been unable to prove, the link between the presence of viral diseases in farmed salmon and the decline in the wild populations of salmon and salmonids such as sea trout. The summary reads in part:

“The results confirmed that intercontinental transmission of infectious agents is likely occurring in offshore waters near Greenland between Atlantic salmon of North American and European origin. Analysis also showed that among the groups analyzed, aquaculture escapees had the highest prevalence of viruses and multiple infections were common among both cultured and wild fish.”

There is no reason whatsoever to suppose that what has been happening on the West side of the Atlantic Ocean hasn’t also been happening on our West coast. It is also the case that the major cause of the mass mortality events that happened in mid-Argyll last Autumn were largely attributable to another, but similar, viral disease, salmon cardiomyopathy. We have written about this before; briefly it’s a new arrival in Scotland that came from Norway a few years ago, is incurable and gives no external signs of its presence until the salmon are on the point of death. When it was detected MOWI took the decision to cull all remaining stocks in most of its “farms” in mid-Argyll, before the disease took them, at which point they would have moved from being a marketable product to Category Two waste that cannot by law enter the food chain. The event has made it into the current Private Eye, see above image.

It’s beginning to look as if the problems for this beleaguered industry aren’t confined to sea lice. With this year having already seen unseasonably warm days there’s no reason for any wishful thinking that viruses won’t return. We hope that Marine Scotland and the Fish Health Inspectorate will read the study and appreciate that viruses, like salmon, don’t know about borders.

The study can be found here: Atlantic Salmon Federation