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Edinburgh University students were “interrogated” by police at their desks over posters featuring Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, prompting dozens to complain.
Unsafe levels of faecal bacteria were recorded at dozens of Scotland’s best beaches this summer. Swimmers and paddlers could be at risk, but officials insist water quality remains high.
Scotland’s biggest fish farming company is to stop using lumpfish to remove sea lice from salmon, after The Ferret revealed tens of thousands of the so-called cleaner fish had died at one of the firm’s Highland sites.
Lumpfish are commonly used on fish farms to ‘clean’ farmed salmon by eating the lice that infest, harm and often kill farmed salmon.
Norwegian multinational Mowi will no longer use lumpfish at its sites in Scotland, although it will continue to “evaluate the benefits of using all cleaner fish”.
The development follows our report in June revealing 135,000 lumpfish died on a Mowi farm in the Highlands, due to environmental issues, natural causes, disease and treatments to remove lice from salmon.
The death toll was described as a “catastrophe” by animal welfare campaigners, and a law firm dedicated to animal protection complained to the Crown Office.
Billy Briggs
The Ferret has since obtained an email sent in July by the Scottish Government’s Fish Health Inspectorate which said “it is our understanding that lumpfish will not be used at Mowi sites going forward”.
In response to Mowi’s move, one expert said halting the use of lumpfish is “essential from an animal welfare point of view” but questioned whether the fish farm industry had a “viable plan” to solve an “out-of-control parasite problem”.
In reply, Mowi said it has invested in new technology that is safer for fish, and claimed that sea lice levels have reached their “lowest levels in more than a decade”.
Cleaner fish – first introduced into Scottish salmon farming in the 1990s – are species of marine fish native to UK coastal waters. The six species used in salmon aquaculture are lumpfish and five types of wrasse; Ballan, Goldsinney, Rock cook, Corkwing and Cuckoo.
The use of cleaner fish, according to the farmed salmon industry, is “mutually beneficial as the cleaner fish get a tasty meal and the salmon are cleaned of the naturally occurring wild sea lice”.
Freshwater treatments are also used to remove lice from salmon. This involves salmon being temporarily transferred to wellboats filled with freshwater where the lice are removed by various methods, some of which can kill cleanerfish.
Abigail Penny, Animal Equality UK
Dr Mark Borthwick, a former head of research at the Aquatic Life Institute who is now researching salmon farming practices, welcomed Mowi ending the use of lumpfish, but said the industry still needs to solve its lice problem.
He said: “Cleaner fish are deployed primarily to protect the salmon farming industry’s social license to operate, and are only sometimes effective at eating lice. These lumpfish have done what they were deployed to do – defer questions on the commercial competence of the salmon farming industry.”
Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, said the salmon farming industry has “failed to effectively control the rampant lice infestations in its farms”, and argued that the solution is “not to harm even more animals and further deplete our oceans”.
Claiming that the use of wrasse and lumpfish as cleaner fish has been “one of the industry’s many dirty secrets for decades”, she added: “It’s time for the Scottish salmon farming industry to end the use of all cleaner fish, not just some. Continuing this broken model is utterly indefensible.”
Mowi Scotland confirmed that lumpfish would no longer be used. A spokesperson added: “Mowi will continue to review all options available with regard to protecting the fish in our care from sea lice. The welfare of our fish is at the heart of what we do. It is also our business model.”
They continued: “Healthy fish that grow to optimum levels are highly sought after all over the world. Cleaner fish continue to be one method available to us in a suite of methods which include freshwater treatment in wellboats. Mowi has also made major investments in FLS mechanical delousing (a chemical-free system) to gently remove sea lice after freshwater baths.”
Rather than using chemicals, the FLS Delouser flushes the fish through a pipeline with seawater at seawater temperature. This keeps the mortality rate low, claims the industry.
Main image: richard johnson/iStock
Hundreds of protected areas are under pressure from Scotland’s massive deer herd. Most agree deer numbers must be controlled to protect the environment, but are split on what should be done.
Edinburgh University students were “interrogated” by police at their desks over posters featuring Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, prompting dozens to complain.
Unsafe levels of faecal bacteria were recorded at dozens of Scotland’s best beaches this summer. Swimmers and paddlers could be at risk, but officials insist water quality remains high.
Footage of farmed trout suffocating, haemorrhaging, and being beaten with batons in a slaughterhouse has prompted an official complaint to a government regulator.
