Fish farmers off the hook again!

[Hoppy]

The Salmon Farm Protest Group
An ruda na bo bhroin, cha bhi e na do thmhnadh
‘That which you have wasted will not be there for future generations’

Fish farmers off the hook again!

The Scottish Executive’s Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill, published 3rd July, ignores calls for the creation of an independent watchdog to oversee the activities of this substantially Norwegian-owned industry.

SFPG chairman Bruce Sandison said, “After months of now seemingly pointless consultation it’s business as usual for this environmentally disastrous industry. The fish farmers are to be allowed to continue regulating themselves through a voluntary ‘Code of Good Practice’”.

Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation chief executive Sid Patten commented: “We are confident that our robust and independently audited Code of Good Practice is the most flexible and cost effective means of achieving a sustainable aquaculture industry…such commitment to high standards is the way to secure employment and investment opportunities in the Highlands and Islands and throughout Scotland.”

Here are some recent examples of the fish farmer’s ‘robust code of good practice’ in action:







Public outrage over Marine Harvest shooting seals at Kyle of Lochalsh

Marine Harvest fish farm manager charged for killing a trapped seabird

Mainstream Scotland inflicting light and noise pollution in Rousay,
Orkney by floodlighting a farm for six months, powered by a 24/7 generator

Escapes, the latest being upwards of 30,000 fish from an Orkney farm

Angus MacMillan, littering South Uist with his abandoned fish farm debris

Shell fish from Loch Roag in the Outer Hebrides, the most intensively farmed loch in Europe, declared a danger to human health Marine Harvest identified as one of Scotland’s top 10 polluters

Marine Harvest burying dead fish in an Environmentally Sensitive Area of machair land on the Island of North Uist

Escaped rainbow trout infecting Loch Etive and the River Awe

1,500 fish farm jobs lost in the Highlands and Islands and throughout Scotland

Environment and Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie, announcing the publication of the new Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill said, “A successful industry depends upon public confidence in the quality of its produce and its environmental credentials.”

For information about the work of the SFPG contact Bruce Sandison (tel: [phone])

or see www.salmonfarmmonitor.org