Protestors urge MSPs to take action against “reckless” Scottish salmon farms as new survey reveals that one-third of Scottish adults would like to see the Government halt salmon farm expansion
Communities from all over Scotland have gathered outside Holyrood to urge MSPs to take decisive action ahead of today’s parliamentary review of the Scottish salmon industry which is widely recognised as contributing to the ongoing decline of wild salmon.
This morning’s demonstration comes as a newly commissioned poll reveals that a third of Scottish adults would like to see the government halt salmon farm expansion. The survey of over two-thousand adults found that fewer than 1 in 10 Scots believe that salmon farming should continue as it is.
The Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Islands Committee inquiry into Scottish salmon farming will question whether the Scottish Government has done enough to regulate salmon farm companies which have been widely criticised for their environmental and welfare impacts, including mass escapes of farmed fish and high rates of fish deaths on farms. Government data, obtained from the industry, shows that there were 12 million deaths in salmon facilities in Scotland last year, and 1,200 breaches of the industry’s lice Code of Good Practice.
The inquiry is seen as a watershed moment for the industry, as the outcome of today’s hearing may influence whether the Committee recommends stronger regulatory intervention including a halt on any new salmon farms. Commercial fishing groups have vigorously opposed new salmon farms in Shetland and the Western Isles in recent months, over concerns that harms to the local marine ecosystem could negatively impact their businesses.
Anglers, community campaigners, conservation charities, animal protection groups and wildlife tourism operators were among the diverse voices standing united in a peaceful demonstration against the salmon farming industry. Along with placards, the campaigners brought a wooden carving of a healthy, wild salmon to present to the First Minister as a symbol of political responsibility to safeguard the future of wild salmon populations and to end the caging of these migratory animals. Scotland’s once thriving wild salmon populations have plummeted drastically, with a decline of 70 percent over the last two decades.
Over a quarter of respondents in the new poll by Survation also called for even further government intervention and say they support a complete phase out on open-net cage salmon farming in Scotland.
The idea of phasing out salmon farms would follow similar action seen in British Columbia in Canada, where the government voted to remove salmon farms in the region to protect the marine environment and wild fish populations. Denmark has halted new salmon farm licences in its coastal waters and court rulings in Sweden have created strong legal barriers to establishing new open-water salmon farms in sensitive waters. Salmon farming has been banned in Alaska since 1990.
The rapid expansion of salmon farms across Scotland is regarded as a driving force behind the collapsing population of wild salmon: crowded pens of farmed salmon breed sea lice and disease that spread to wild fish passing through the same waters, while escaped farmed salmon interbreed with wild stocks and weaken their genetic resilience. Data from Government regulators show that nearly one-quarter of active salmon farms in Scotland are in breach of the lice Code of Good Practice. The intensive farming model used in the industry has also drawn criticism for widespread animal welfare issues, including high rates of disease, parasites, and mortality, with recent figures showing that as many as four in ten salmon die at sea in Scotland before slaughter.
Campaigners outside parliament said that action to stop the Scottish salmon industry’s unbridled expansion is “long overdue”, and pointed to a string of disastrous incidents over the last few months which shows the industry is continuing to avoid government action despite repeated major failings. The last industry quarter saw the mass escape of 75,000 farmed salmon in Loch Linnhe, the unexpected deaths of more than 250,000 fish in Shetland, and leading salmon producer Mowi’s loss of the Royal Warrant following an animal welfare investigation where fish were recorded being beaten to death.
The Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers Union that represents Scottish salmon workers also sounded the alarm after it was revealed that there were over 100 worker health and safety incidents over recent years, including ‘degloving’, fractures, broken bones, and in one case death. Concerns have also been raised of workers’ exposure to bioaerosols that have been linked to ‘salmon asthma’. The revelations sparked Labour MSP, Monica Lennon, to lodge a parliamentary motion calling for an urgent investigation into the industry. The latest Salmon Production Survey also found that the number of direct jobs offered by the industry reduced by 8%.
Ken Reid, Coordinator of the 32,000 member Salmon Fishing Club, said: “Anglers are typically conservation volunteers, not protestors. When those who quietly restore rivers and fund vital science feel compelled to stand at Parliament, it reflects the seriousness of the situation and something has gone badly wrong. As the nature champion for the Atlantic salmon, John Swinney has a duty to protect this fish for future generations and issue an urgent moratorium on new salmon farms as a first step.”
Nick Underdown, Scotland Director for WildFish, said:
“This Committee has a choice between protecting the private interests of salmon farming companies or protecting our environment and wild fish. Scotland’s once mighty populations of salmon are a shadow of their former health – in some smaller rivers, they have disappeared entirely. Already a third of Scots want to see an immediate halt on the unbridled expansion of salmon farms, and that number is only set to increase as public awareness around the industry’s reckless impact continues to grow. Political action is long overdue, and we urge MSPs to protect the heritage of Scottish wildlife by finally implementing a moratorium on new salmon farms and start planning to phase out salmon farming like other countries are doing. We present a symbol of Scotland’s wild salmon to the First Minister and ask him to heed these concerns and put the brakes on, before it is too late.”
John Aitchison, a spokesperson on aquaculture for the Coastal Communities Network, said:
“More and more of Scotland’s coastal communities are angry about the impact of these polluting industrial farms, sited in the waters on which our communities depend. Salmon farms impact our jobs by dumping all their pesticides, fish faeces and parasites into the sea. We can smell the sickening aftermath of mass deaths in the farms when we travel on ferries with the “morts” trucks. A third of a billion salmon have suffered and died prematurely at sea in Scotland since the mid 1980s, but the Government has done next to nothing to reduce this rising death toll. This cavalier approach is harming Scotland’s reputation as a compassionate nation and a Good Food Nation. It is inexcusable and has to stop. An urgent moratorium on expansion would be the responsible response by any government faced with regulating an industry beset with so many serious issues.”
Abigail Penny, Executive Director for Animal Equality UK, said: “Every year, millions of salmon die in underwater cages on Scottish lochs, in conditions so grim that the industry doesn’t even want you to know the true death toll. Many are eaten alive by lice, infected with disease, or crammed into warming, overcrowded waters for their entire lives. Thanks to toothless regulators, the industry has gotten away with it – until now. Communities, conservationists, animal advocates, even some workers – people from all walks of life have been paying close attention to this industry’s constant failures, and we’re calling time on it. The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee has a duty to objectively examine the facts, and they are plain as day: on-farm deaths hit 12 million last year; there were over 1,200 lice breaches; 47 major non-compliances were identified by the environmental regulator; and workers raised alarm over more than 100 serious health and safety incidents. The industry plays victim, but it’s the animals, the people, and the environment that pay the price. The people are taking back the power, and public awareness is only going to grow.”
Bally Philp, coordinator for the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, said: “Scotland’s inshore shellfish fishermen rely on a healthy marine ecosystem, yet salmon farming continues to expand despite concerns about chemical use, including well-documented impacts of delousing agents on crustacean larvae. The Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation supports a moratorium on further expansion until these impacts are properly addressed.”
Alison Baker, Angling Scotland Chair, said: “Anglers have long been the ‘eyes and ears’ of our rivers, but we are now witnessing a collapse in wild Atlantic salmon numbers that no amount of catch-and-release or local conservation can fix alone. We are at a ‘now or never’ moment where the Scottish Government must look beyond the surface; we cannot allow our iconic wild salmon to be managed into extinction while the primary threats, like the impacts of salmon farms, remain inadequately addressed. If we lose the iconic wild salmon, we lose a foundational part of our rural heritage, fragile rural economies, jobs and the very heart of Scottish angling.”
A spokesperson for Survation, the company which conducted the poll into attitudes towards salmon farms, said: “Survation conducted a nationally representative poll on behalf of WildFish of 2,005 Scottish adults aged 16+. Data were weighted to the profile of Scotland by age, sex, region, and past vote (2014 Independence Referendum, 2016 EU Referendum, 2021 Scottish Parliamentary Election, and 2024 General Election). The poll has a margin of error of ±2.33%.”
