Don't forget that the salmon farms operate a "voluntary" code...tiz worthless if they cannot be held to account.
I do find it concerning when a government creates a committee and inquiry to look at the regulation, husbandry and worth of the salmon farming industry and then completely ignores its findings because it does not suit their political agenda of increasing salmon farm production, increasing export and being seen as a "green" government.
The committee stated that Scottish salmon farming could not be sustained at it's current levels and it's net worth to the country was negligible. The very next day the SG announced 3 new farms, a £6m investment and a pledge to increase exports by 30%.
What I find interesting is that exports are worth around £500m, but we import £350 million pound of salmon from abroad. That import is made up of ova (49,370,000) and Parr/Smolts (1, 956,000). Therefore the £500m has to have at least the cost of the brood stock removed from its total for a more realistic figure.
So, the figures for export are grossly misrepresented. Recent reports have put the actual figures of "contribution to the economy" at around the same level as what the SG have pumped into the industry.
In other words, its not sustaining itself.
Mortality rates are running at around 23% across the total 18 month production cycle. When we are dealing with around 60, 000,000 fish a year, that's nearly 14 million salmon a year dying in production. Figures for "escapees" are difficult to find because of the way escapes are reported, but at least 300,000 escaped in 2016. It is likely that this figure is a low estimate.
All these figures are available on the Scottish Government website in the Committee Reports section.