A well known salmon farming company was told by Scottish Government inspectors to cut lice numbers at three of its sites in Sutherland. It responded by suggesting that other salmon farmers were failing to report lice numbers accurately.
A fish farm company has started legal action to stop an anti-salmon campaigner visiting its sites covertly.
Scottish Sea Farms (SSF) has applied to Oban Sheriff Court for a court order against Don Staniford, a high profile activist who is director of Scamon Scotland.
SSF is seeking an interim order that would prohibit Staniford and his associates from coming within 15 meters of its property, flying drones over the sites, and using underwater drones in the site areas.
The salmon company argues that Staniford’s incursions on to fish farms are unlawful, and that his conduct poses a risk to the safety and wellbeing of the company’s staff.
Staniford has agreed to temporarily stay away from Scottish Sea Farms’ facilities, it has been reported.
In the writ asking for an interdict, SSF and its lawyers write: “The defender (Staniford) will not be interdicted from lawfully acting as an environmental activist. The terms of the interdict sought do not interfere with the responsible exercise of his right to peacefully and lawfully protest.”
Scotland’s biggest salmon farmer, Mowi, was recently granted an interdict preventing Staniford from encroaching within 15 metres of its farms and buildings, and SSF is seeking a similar ban.
Staniford – a high profile activist who covertly enters fish farms to film – regularly posts photos and videos of diseased and dying fish in fish farm pens online.
But he was accused by Mowi of distorting the truth, by editing together images in a way that makes the pens look worse than they are.
Billy is a founder and co-editor of The Ferret. He's reported internationally and from Scotland, and focuses on far right extremism, human rights, animal welfare, and the arms trade. Oor Wullie fan.
A well known salmon farming company was told by Scottish Government inspectors to cut lice numbers at three of its sites in Sutherland. It responded by suggesting that other salmon farmers were failing to report lice numbers accurately.
We visited the Polish city of Krakow ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day which is held to remember the millions murdered by the Nazis – including six million Jews. Krakow's Jewish population was decimated then but the city is now home to one of the fastest-growing Jewish communities in the world.
Scottish authorities had to intervene to keep deer numbers down at a Sutherland estate after the overpopulated animals damaged protected areas. Meanwhile, the landowner has received vast sums of public money.
A campaigner has made the first estimate of the total number of cleaner fish that have died while grazing lice on farmed salmon. It’s condemned as a “colossal waste of life” that should cease.
