During the week, the Scottish Salmon Producing Organisation (SSPO) massaged their industry figures to boast their biggest misleading quote yet: that 98.83% of salmon survive a month at sea.
Farmed salmon spend up to 24 months at sea however, sometimes more. The accumulation of lice, disease & faecal turbidity increases over time. With around 1,000,000 salmon per farm on the Scottish west coast, by the end of the production run the sum total of dead fish is also in the millions. Factor in the deaths in the hatcheries and juvenile (smolt) rearing stations and it just becoming mind boggling.
Government spreadsheet on all self-reported mortalities publishes here.
The figures are astonishing!
https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0054/00546694.xlsx
If we look at reported mortalities across the business sector, we see:
OVER 9 MILLION, according to ScotGov figures!
This is truly outrageous. Absolutely NOBODY from the industry can stand behind this as acceptable. It’s is morally, ethically and incontrovertibly WRONG.
The BBC have reported on the lice issue here.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-47723529
Perhaps the heading should be “Salmon Farms to Blame for Sea Lice”?
But look at the causes of early death:
Corralling fish before they get treated is killing them.
Treatments are killing them.
Handling them is killing them.
Seals are still killing them.
The same diseases that wiped out entire runs of wild salmon in the 1970s is killing them.
The highly lauded “Thermolicer” and “Hydrolicers” are killing salmon in the TENS OF THOUSANDS.
Even the nets they brush against are killing them.
It is out of control, unwarranted MASS DESTRUCTION before they even reach the slaughter house!
But undercover work in the north east of Scotland last week revealed that diseased salmon ARE reaching the retailers. See below.
Given the ‘status quo‘ in the industry and some sneaky expansion, the outcome of the industries abject failure to control mortalities is:
•Record levels of mortalities 58.2%!
•Record levels of Hydrogen Peroxide
•Record levels of untreated waste
•Record low in unplanned visits
•LochDuartSalmon forced to drop “Sustainable” label
•Cartel investigations
•Farms still “self reporting”.
It’s not going away. In fact, its getting worse. And the SSPO & Scottish Government are looking increasingly guilty of ecocide.
Even Sir David Attenborough has spoken out about the whole sorry mess:
https://youtu.be/IZ2IRp9NRjo
Usually when Sir David speaks, it bring about some hope and positivity. But faced with the figures above, how can we recover when the Government and industry are pushing for EXPANSION?
Sad times indeed.
The Governments are sponsoring environmental destruction.
This MADNESS MUST STOP!
