‘No cover up’, Holyrood committee is told

A hearing held as part of the Scottish Parliament’s inquiry into the salmon farming industry yesterday was dominated by arguments over an alleged “cover-up” ahead of the MSPs’ visit to a fish farm on 23 September.

The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee of the Scottish Parliament is following up on a previous report, in 2008, on the salmon industry. As part of the inquiry, members of the committee visited a Scottish Sea Farms site at Dunstaffnage, near Oban on Scotland’s west coast, on 23 September.

Later that week, campaigning group Animal Equality UK released video footage which, it said, showed dead fish being removed from the pen in the early morning, ahead of the MSPs’ visit. Animal Equality UK Executive Director Abigail Penny said the removal of dead fish – “morts” – indicated that the salmon industry wants to “hide the truth” about mortality in farms.

She argued: “We urge the committee to see the industry for what it truly is: deceptive and deadly.”

At yesterday’s committee hearing, MSPs quizzed representatives of the salmon industry about the issue.

Dr Ralph Bickerdike, Head of Fish Health at Scottish Sea Farms, stressed that the morts removal that had been filmed was a routine exercise carried out at pens regardless of whether any external visitors were expected.

The pen concerned was one of seven that had been treated with fresh water and a certain number of mortalities could be foreseen. The numbers at the pen concerned were not out of line with typical outcomes, he added.

He stressed: “There was no attempt whatever to cover up.”

MSPs visiting Scottish Sea Farms’ Dunstaffnage site, September 2024

The industry’s arguments were supported by the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI), which – in a letter to the committee – said that reported mortality levels at the Dunstaffnage site did not appear to be above that which would need to be reported.

The letter also stated: “The FHI would consider that this procedure would be consistent with the mortality removal procedures on Scottish aquaculture farm sites.”

The FHI stressed: “Whilst any mortality is regrettable and should be minimised, where possible, it is a recognised aspect of animal husbandry.”

Tavish Scott, Chief Executive of Salmon Scotland, said: “This committee and our sector have been subject to a deliberate, orchestrated and coordinated campaign by anti-salmon farming extreme activists, aided and abetted by some in the media. This is another deliberate attempt to derail the committee’s focus on what has changed in the Scottish salmon industry since 2008.”

Later in the meeting, Scott clashed with Conservative MSP Edward Mountain, who suggested that Scott had put him under undue pressure to take a less critical attitude to the salmon industry. Mountain quoted from a conversation Scott had not known was being recorded, but the committee’s Convener Finlay Carson ruled this topic was not relevant to that morning’s hearing.

Edward Mountain MSP