Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

James Laraway

Just read the 'outcomes' of the inquiry at Holyrood....

Why did they bother ? Anyone with half an ounce of sense could have pointed out years ago that 'light touch' regulation had failed ( a bit like banking....)

I could have also told them of the other reccomendations ( and saved them a tonnne of time and money)
- relocate poorly sited farms away from wild fish migratory routes
- immediate reporting of fish mortalities and disease
- reporting on the use of chemicals

the only people who wanted a moratorium were 1 green MSP and one Labour.

"The committee's convener, Edward Mountain MSP, said: "The salmon farming industry offers significant economic and social value to Scotland, providing jobs and investment in rural areas. " - he will be getting an email from me today, a very stern email because the facts are:

- its foreign owned companies polluting our seas( so the profit goes abroad)
- yes it creates jobs but to the detriment of jobs provided by rod and line fishing  ( shops, hotels, restaurants, gillies, petrol stations...i could go on and on)
- everyone knows that if the facts are available on mortality , chemical use etc people will no longer view it as a 'premium product' as its akin to battery farming

so despite his  50 % ownership of the £8.3 million  Delfur beat on the Spey ( his brother having the other 50 %)  he still doesnt have the guts to stand up to the industry ? Shame on him.

Bob Mitchell

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #1 on: 27/11/2018 at 09:27 »
Insufficient evidence is a good excuse to let things stand as they are at present until the results of another enquiry has been dragged out. When I hear about the number of jobs being created by any company the first thing I want to know is how much of a subsidy are they getting from the government.
Bob.

Rob Brownfield

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #2 on: 27/11/2018 at 10:06 »
I have been following a campaigner, Corin Smith, for a number of months now, and he has been gaining access to various documents through freedom of information requests etc.

He has a piece on this very report today. Here is his intro.....

"IT'S HERE! The Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee has released their report on the impacts of salmon farming in Scotland.

In what will be seen as an overwhelming endorsement of the concerns of myself, and many others, about the wide ranging environmental impacts of industrial scale salmon farming in Scotland and the almost total lack of an appropriate framework of regulation, the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee has set out 65 recommendations it urges the Scottish Ministers to take action on.

The enquiry was the result of a successful petition by Salmon & Trout Conservation Scotland, to have the issues heard and examined.

The report is wide ranging and detailed and can be found at the link below.

All the members of the REC and ECCLR committees should be commended for putting party politics aside to objectively examine the impacts of the salmon farming industry in Scotland.

A brief summary:

- The salmon farming industry in Scotland does have a meaningful economic impact.

- Salmon farming has large environmental impacts.

- The current framework of regulation, inspection and enforcement is inadequate.

- Transformational regulatory overhaul is required if growth of the industry is to be considered.

- All aspects of the regulatory framework should meet the highest international standards. Currently they do not.

- The Precautionary Principle has not been historically applied, but going forward it should be.

- Regulatory overhaul should include the creation of wide and deep statutory regulation, with a move away from a culture of self assessment and the current voluntary standards.

- Levels of sea lice and mortalities associated with disease on many salmon farms are consistently too high.

- Thresholds for mortalities and sea lice should become statutory, with associated enforcement actions for farms/operators which persistently breach these thresholds

- Collection and publication of data related to sea lice and mortalities should be much faster and more transparent.

- Self assessment cannot be the basis for the collection of this data.

- Industry should be making significant contributions to the costs of regulation and the collection of data.

- The widespread use of wild cleaner fish in salmon farms is concerning. Impacts on wild stocks should be understood and should be regulated.

- Salmon farms impact wild fish and should not be located in their migratory routes or allowed to continue to impact their lifecycle. Inappropriately located farms should be helped to relocate.

- There is currently no agency which has responsibility for the management of wild fish stocks. This needs to be addressed.

The findings of two cross-party Parliamentary committees, based on the most wide ranging examination of open-cage salmon farming ever undertaken in Scotland, make it clear that there are an array of unacceptable environmental impacts and a woefully inadequate system of regulation. Faced with overwhelming consensus, the Scottish Government Ministers should take immediate action to end their spin and prevarication, start to properly regulate this industry and protect Scotland's precious costal environment from the worst effects of salmon farming.

But...... it’s not the first time there’s been an enquiry and not the first time these things have been said. Change on the ground is the measure of success"


James Laraway

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #3 on: 27/11/2018 at 11:59 »
"  the Scottish Government Ministers should take immediate action to end their spin and prevarication, start to properly regulate this industry and protect Scotland's precious costal environment from the worst effects of salmon farming "

Fat chance

i was hoping that other parties would have siezed the opporunity to score an open goal against the SNP as this is an 'open and shut case' - but Edward Mountain failed miserably

We all know the SNP are 'in bed' with the norwegian fish farming companies and continually block freedom of information requests knowing how badly the fish farming industry would look should they publish the data

Saying that the greens could say " if you dont sort this out we will not back your budget" - but they wont as they would rather keep the SNP dependent on them and keep them at the 'top table' - so much for being green...

Derek Roxborough

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #4 on: 27/11/2018 at 16:45 »
since the  Late 70's every one has been in bed with the Norwegians, the Norwegian Gov. at the time felt that salmon farming there had reached saturation , and stopped subsidies, so the industry looked to Scotland because we were giving out big incentives , I worked for a Norwegian based company and there were others, in the late 80's we did a take on the numbers directly employed in the Industry through out Scotland, and it was a lot less than you would think, not counting spin off jobs,and now  it's even less, as most farms turn to automated feeding ,a local site went from 16 down to 6, our estimate at the time was under 3,000 through out Scotland, I  argued that the number of guests at the loch Maree hotel and the number of guests on the river Ewe, brought at least the same amount of revenue into the local economy
most of these came with families who spent money locally , at local shops,etc. but no more and 10 or 11 gillies don't work any more, no boats to repair, little or no tackle sold, and a serious decline in seatrout numbers, to practical extinction, ( less than 30% with no big spawners) all that in under 20 years, when these fish had survived  since the last Ice age,   :z8  Derek Roxborough

James Laraway

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #5 on: 27/11/2018 at 16:56 »
got this email today following my 'hissy fit' at Edward Mountain...


at least he replied and quickly. I noticed he didn't try and bribe me with a day at Delfur....darn it....


Dear James,
 
Thanks for the email.
 
I am disappointed you feel the way you do and I would ask you to consider the whole report and the 65 recommendations within it. It can be found at
 
https://sp-bpr-en-prod-cdnep.azureedge.net/published/REC/2018/11/27/Salmon-farming-in-Scotland/REC-S5-18-09.pdf
 
The Committee has produced a balance piece of work and I would draw you attention to two specific recommendations within it as follows:
 
RECOMMENDATION 2
The Committee strongly agrees with the view of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee (ECCLR) Committee that if the industry is to grow, the “status quo” in terms of regulation and enforcement is not acceptable. It is of the view that urgent and meaningful action needs to be taken to address regulatory deficiencies as well as fish health and environmental issues before the industry can expand. (see paragraph 61)
 
RECOMMENDATION 9
However, the Committee considers the current level of mortalities to be too high in general across the sector and it is very concerned to note the extremely high mortality rates at particular sites. It is of the view that no expansion should be permitted at sites which report high or significantly increased levels of mortalities, until these are addressed to the satisfaction of the appropriate regulatory bodies. (see paragraph 146)
 
I am very happy to discuss this report with you if it would help,
 
With best wishes
Edward
 

Derek Roxborough

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #6 on: 27/11/2018 at 21:54 »
Lucky You ,James :cool: Derek Roxborough

Rob Brownfield

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #7 on: 28/11/2018 at 09:47 »
we did a take on the numbers directly employed in the Industry through out Scotland,

Scottish Government quoted 18,000 jobs both directly and indirectly about a week ago in a press release. The figures the report linked to showed 12,000 "from farm to customer", but since much of the salmon is exported, I guess many of the 12,000 are not actually in Scotland. So immediately I found a mis match of "facts".  Went to the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation figures and it shows 10,000 including distribution and sales, and yet another set if data on the Scottish Government website shows less than 1000 directly employed.

So what figures do we believe??

Derek Roxborough

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #8 on: 28/11/2018 at 23:03 »
probably the lower figure, after all jobs have been lost with the automation of feeding the hatchery I worked had 6 employed, now it has 2, full time and a couple of temps when needed, the higher figure will take in processers and transport, but it will be lower now with the closure of the salmon processers in Dingwall this week, Derek Roxborough

James Laraway

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #9 on: 20/05/2019 at 17:05 »
Oh dear....BBC panorama tonight

Salmon farming giant Mowi probed over chemical use

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48334029


Derek Roxborough

Re: 'insufficient evidence' for salmon farming moratorium
« Reply #10 on: 20/05/2019 at 22:07 »
when Mowi was Marine Harvest they were feeding Anti-biotics as a prophylactic with the fish food, I wonder if that has stopped ? Derek Roxborough

 




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