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Salmon Farming
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Marine Biologist Malcolm Thompson with escapee salmon found on the orkney coast |
More recently, the health of the Orkney sea trout fishery has become the focus of attention for the Committee. Back in the 1920s, a paper by a chap called Nall judged the growth rate of Orkney sea trout to be the second fastest in Scotland. Although sea trout are perhaps not as prolific as they were then, current stocks remain fairly healthy. However, there is anxiety regarding the future of sea trout in Orkney, mindful of the stock crashes which have been experienced elsewhere, e.g. the north-west coast of Scotland and the west coast of Ireland.
The development of intensive salmon farming in these areas has often been cited as the main cause of these declines. Although officially this link remains to be proven, unofficially, there is little doubt that the salmon farming, or more specifically, the spread of sea lice from salmon farms, is indeed the major cause of sea trout stock collapses.
The production of farmed salmon in Orkney has been low relative to the rest of Scotland. However, we are now at a juncture and recent applications to install a number of large salmon farming units in Scapa Flow and elsewhere mean that the scale and intensity of farmed salmon production in Orkney is about to escalate significantly.
The Committee has been unswerving in its attempts to inform both the local council and the public of the implications of such development around Orkney's coastline. It would be fair to say that as a result, a more cautious attitude towards salmon farming has developed, replacing an outlook which saw salmon farming as nothing other than a good aspect of Orkney's economy with one which sees this industry as only one of several depending on the inshore seas around Orkney. The Committee has also succeeded in blocking the installation of some large salmon farms in areas which are near important sea trout migratory and spawning areas.
It is not the wish of the Committee to oppose all salmon farming development in Orkney. It would rather, however, see the industry remain on a smaller scale, producing a high quality product in harmony with other users of our coastal zone. The Committee continues to try and keep up to date with the development of salmon farming in Orkney. It is a dynamic and extremely challenging arena, but hopefully, down the line somewhere, Orkney will have both a sustainable aqua culture sector as well as a healthy stock of wild sea trout that is capable of providing an exciting and unique fishery???…
It has been brought to my attention that a new company calling itself North Isles Salmon is proposing to introduce and develop four salmon farm sites to the west of Eday with a combined annual production in the region of 6,000 tonnes. To put this into perspective total annual production from the existing 24 salmon farms in Orkney is in the region of just over 5,000 tonnes. North Isles Salmon is a subsidiary company of Panfish ASA of Norway, which is one of the biggest salmon producers in the world with fish farms in the USA, Canada, Norway and Scotland.
At first glance this may appear to be a welcome boost to the local economy. There are however a number of concerns about this development, which I believe, deserve debate. It is now widely accepted by the scientific community that the disappearance of wild sea trout from most rivers in the West Coasts of Scotland, Ireland and Norway is a result of sea lice, originating from salmon farms attacking wild fish*.
Orkney is one of the last areas in the Highlands and Islands with a reasonably healthy population of wild sea trout. Local anglers are increasingly alarmed at the number of Orkney sea trout infested by sea lice. Perhaps more disturbing are new concerns about the possible link between salmon farms and shellfish poisoning (PSP, DSP and ASP). In recent years this has resulted in the closure of vitally important shellfish fisheries on the west coast of Scotland and around Orkney and Shetland. There is now growing concern that nutrients from salmon farms may be encouraging toxic algal blooms which result in this poisoning. To get an impression of the nutrient problem consider these facts. In a modern well run salmon farm approximately 75% of the organic matter in feed is lost through the bottom of cages or in fish faeces. To produce 6,000 tonnes of salmon requires between 6,000 and 7,000 tonnes of feed over about 18 months. This means that between 4,500 and 5,000 tonnes of organic matter is effectively dumped in the sea from a 6,000 tonne development. A family car weighs about a tonne!
Professor David Mackay of SEPA (the official government watch dog) recently pointed out that "…… nutrient pollution from salmon farms may lead to fundamental distortions of the marine ecosystem … [which]…may evidence themselves as increased occurrence of toxic algal blooms…" One of the most respected conservation bodies in the world the WWF, has informed Ross Finnie, Minister for Rural Affairs, that nutrient discharges from Scottish salmon farms are equivalent to the annual sewage discharged by a population of 9.4 million people and that there is a wealth of evidence linking ASP causing plankton blooms to high levels of nutrients
New large-scale salmon farms will undeniably create jobs, but for how long? In 1990 Scottish salmon farming the industry produced 32,351 tonnes of fish and employed 1,491 people. By 1998 the industry produced 99,197 tomes (a 206% increase) and employed 1,295 people (15% decrease). In the face of falling salmon prices (as world output soars) the only way to survive is to expand the size of farms, invest in machinery and produce more salmon with fewer people. This is why we see mega proposals such as the Norwegian funded project off Eday. This trend is bound to continue. Any new salmon farming developments in Orkney will only survive by expanding in the future (more space and more pollution) or by shedding jobs. If this is the case this industry can only be maintained at the expense of an environment which has long supported sustainable employment in traditional fisheries. A blind hen in a blizzard could see this.
Locally there has been great effort put into the production and marketing of a quality salmon product, generally produced by small scale local producers. There are also moves towards organic production. Local salmon sells at a higher price, which makes smaller local farms viable. Unfortunately it is all too easy for outside companies to move to the region, adopt a local sounding name for their company and exploit the hard earned reputation built up by local producers. OIC and Orkney enterprise should be trying to help local farmers increase the quality of their product, promoting sustainability and actively discouraging new large-scale developments. Following a petition presented to the Scottish Parliament by leading scientists and environmental groups, the Scottish Executive is to establish a far reaching inquiry into the environmental effects of salmon farming. It would be madness to proceed with any new development in Orkney until this inquiry is complete.
It is to be hoped that the inquiry will give us a better understanding of the impacts of this industry. The Eday development is to be accompanied by a consultant's report assessing environmental impacts. Quite how commercial consultants can compile such a report when the experts are unsure about environmental impacts is a mystery. If we let this development go ahead we are playing dice with the environment not to mention the jobs of fishermen and shellfish divers. Keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best is not good enough.
One final point in an already overlong letter. In January Orkney broke a record but not one to be proud of. Approximately 250,000 fish escaped from a local salmon farm, the biggest escape ever reported in Scotland and second biggest in the world. No one knows the impact of this genetic pollution on wild fish but quoting Professor Mackay again this "should be recognised by all as a real and present danger". Last week a number of salmon escapees were found stranded in rock pools around Finstown and Rendall. Fish so stupid that they didn't know what the tide was. Where they came from is a mystery but they were farmed fish. For the sake of the people that have been taking these fish home to eat I only hope that before they escaped these salmon hadn't just been doused with organophosphate sea louse treatment (or illegally with sheep dip which happened recently on a farm on the West Coast). Before it can proceed the Eday development will require a sea bed lease from the Crown Estate. This will be advertised in the local press. The Crown Estate Commissioners will also ask OIC for a recommendation.
If you are concerned about the potential impact on the environment, the potential impact on fishermen's jobs or simply believe that we should halt new developments until we have a better understanding of their long term impacts, then contact your councilor or OIC planning department to voice your concern. Are we really incapable of learning lessons from the rest of Scotland, Ireland, Norway and Canada? Talking about this in the pub or at home in front of the TV won't change anything, but protests from real people will. Yours. Colin Kirkpatrick *A sea louse is a flesh eating fish parasite, which attacks sea trout and salmon. Huge numbers of salmon in captivity produce unnaturally high numbers of lice, which attack and kill juvenile wild fish.