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France 24
3 days ago
- General
- France 24
Meet the ‘kayak vigilante' fighting the Scottish salmon farming industry
Armed with a GoPro mounted on a telescopic pole, Staniford has been kayaking out to salmon farms for over six years. His mission: to film the circular cages holding tens of thousands of fish and expose what he calls "the horrors' of salmon farming. He then shares the footage across his social media platforms: People don't really know what's going on underneath the surface of the water, which is why it's very important for activists like me and others to film inside the cages and lift the lid to show the public what's really going on. Normally I'd kayak out very early in the morning. (...) It's a question of going to the farm when there are no workers. We don't harass workers, we don't intimidate workers. We're trying to film when no one else is there. We can have data on which farms have disease problems, which farms have deaths and mortalities, and target those farms. Staniford said he filmed around 60 salmon farms, predominantly in Scotland, as well as in Ireland and Denmark's Faroe Islands. 'The more fish you cram in a closed confinement space, the more diseases you get' Footage he captured during one of his excursions in September 2021 depicted dead fish floating on the surface, alongside others afflicted with raw flesh patches or swollen eyeballs. Staniford blames overcrowding for these conditions: You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work out that if you cram animals at high densities, you're going to get diseases. You're going to get viruses, parasites. The more fish you cram in a closed confinement space, the more diseases you get. And this is a function of intensive production. Among these parasites, Staniford says he has found sea lice, which feed on the skin and blood of salmon. Mass deaths In 2023, a record 17.4 million salmon died in Scottish farms, according to government data. The survival rate for juvenile salmon introduced two years earlier was 68.7%. The spokesperson for the industry group Salmon Scotland, Andrew Watson, told the FRANCE 24 Observers team that Scottish salmon farms had succeeded in improving survival rates in recent years. 'Following a £1 billion investment since 2018, we increased survival rates in 2024 to a four-year high. The Scottish salmon sector has delivered the best survival rates on record in the first quarter of 2025, averaging 99.02 per cent, while managing sea lice levels to an historic low,' Watson said. Initial 2024 data announced by the Scottish government in a January 17 report show no improvement in survival rates since 2018. Incidents have occurred in recent months, too. Videos released in June 2024 by activist group Animal Rising and filmed in northern Scotland appear to show fish suffering from burst eyeballs and skin wounds attributed to sea lice. Over one million farmed salmon also died in October 2024 at a Scottish farm operated by Norway's Mowi, the world's biggest producer of farmed salmon. It was the most significant mass die-off of farmed salmon in Scotland in a decade. While Mowi attributed the deaths to jellyfish blooms exacerbated by unprecedented sea temperature rises, campaigners have linked the incidents to the expansion of aquaculture farms and poor welfare. Salmon-farming companies routinely dismiss footage from Staniford and other activists as "selective" and "isolated examples", often attributing damage to external factors. Parliamentary inquiry However, the Scottish authorities themselves are taking up the issue. On January 17, 2025, the Rural Affairs and Islands (RAI) Committee of the Scottish Parliament published a report stemming from an inquiry conducted between April and December 2024. This followed the publication of a first inquiry in 2018. 'The Committee is disappointed by figures showing that mortality has not improved since the 2018 report,' the 2025 report stated. 'The Committee considers the current level of mortality to be too high in general across the sector, and it is very concerned to note the extremely high mortality rates at particular sites,' it also reads. While acknowledging some industry improvements, the Committee wrote it was 'concerned that preventing high mortality events is not currently within the operational capability of industry' and called for 'far greater transparency in reporting mortality rates and disease outbreaks'. The Committee also noted the impact of salmon farming on the global environment. Staniford says the effects of salmon farming go far beyond the boundaries of the farms themselves: The salmon farming industry discharges the waste effluent directly into the sea, which is sewage contamination. It also uses toxic chemicals. There are mass escapes from the farms that cause genetic contamination. And there's also the feed issue. Far from being a panacea for the world's food problem, we're actually overfishing. We're actually contributing to the crisis in world fisheries by fishing down the food chain. Injunctions The salmon farming industry takes a dim view of Staniford's activities. Scotland is the world's third-largest producer of Atlantic salmon, after Chile and Norway, making salmon farming a significant industry in the country. According to industry data, international sales of Scottish salmon reached £844 million (€1,000 million) in 2024, solidifying its standing as the U.K.'s largest food export. France remains the first export market, accounting for 55% of the total value of all Scottish salmon exports. Staniford is currently facing legal action from three prominent Norwegian and Faroese salmon-farming companies. The companies say his intrusions onto their facilities are unauthorised and present significant safety risks to both their personnel and fish stocks. Two of these companies successfully obtained an injunction in 2024, legally barring him from accessing the walkways of their salmon pens. Although Staniford indicated in November 2024 that he was considering retirement, he now appears more determined than ever to continue his fight: I'd love to retire. I'm 53. I'm too old; I don't want to be kayaking out to farms, and I don't want to be leaving my children on weekends. But if nobody else will do it, I will do it. In terms of retiring, if I'm banned from 75% of salmon farms in Scotland, then my job is done here. But maybe I'll just emigrate to Tasmania, Canada, Chile, or even France. They may be able to shut me down legally and have injunctions against me in Scotland. But maybe my retirement in Scotland will pave the way for me to move to another jurisdiction
Scotsman
23-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Football may divide communities in Scotland, but it has nothing on fish
Removal of Brexit red tape should boost Scotland's salmon industry Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... If you are landing cod in a trawler off the Aberdeenshire coast, this week's news that the UK had struck a trade deal with the European Union was 'a horror show', according to the Scottish Fishermens' Federation. The granting of 12 years of access to UK waters for EU fishing vessels was seen as a betrayal. But if you are working on a salmon fish farm off the west coast, it was 'breakthrough', according to Salmon Scotland. The group includes the largest salmon farm businesses in the world, including Bakkafrost, a Faroese company, Cooke Scotland of Canada, as well as Mowi Scotland and Scottish Sea Farms, both of Norway. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A trawler in the North Sea | PA For team salmon, removal of Brexit red tape ought to boost French sales. That's because physical checks of lorries at Boulogne-sur-Mer, a major distribution hub for seafood entering continental Europe, will no longer be needed, shaving precious hours off the time it takes to get fresh salmon to the restaurants of Paris. France is the largest market in the world for Scottish salmon, accounting for 55 per cent of exports and 95 per cent of all product sold in the EU, making the fish the UK's largest food export. Yet the story of salmon is not only one of export success. The sector remains plagued by battles between Salmon Scotland and campaign groups claiming that the industry's animal welfare practices mean its product doesn't deserve to appear on supermarket shelves or restaurant menus. Among them, WildFish and the Coastal Communities Network (CCN) argue that the use of seaborne 'open net' pens to grow salmon results in unacceptably high death rates because of overcrowding, poor animal welfare and disease, chiefly sea lice that cause skin lesions, rendering the salmon unmarketable. Last year, the Canadian government announced a ban on open pen salmon farming in British Columbia by mid-2029. Polarisation on salmon farming is clear Salmon Scotland counters that salmon farmers are the only farm sector in the UK to voluntarily publish 'farm level' mortality data and that the industry has invested heavily in fish health and welfare - to the tune of £1 billion since 2018. Mowi Scotland and Edinburgh University's Roslin Institute have just started joint research into improving resistance to disease by studying the fish's DNA and immune system. The level of polarisation on the issue is clear from the language used. Campaigners and marine scientists talk of 'mortality' of up to 25 per cent, while the industry sometimes prefers to talk about 'survival' rates, which Salmon Scotland says improved last year by 10 percentage points to 82 per cent. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Holyrood's latest effort to resolve matters came in January with the results of an inquiry by the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee (RAIC) into progress on improving conditions in salmon farming since a critical Scottish government report in 2018. The committee was 'disappointed' that mortality rates had not improved, adding they were 'too high'. The String of Pearls jellyfish has been blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of salmon | Getty Images Tavish Scott, Salmon Scotland's chief executive, says he doesn't believe the report was 'particularly thorough', criticising it for containing 'anti-farming language' similar to that from campaign groups. 'What the committee seemed to completely fail to understand is that is that we could not sell a single fish to any supermarket or restaurant if we were not complying with the highest regulatory standards,' he says. The Scottish government's response to the RAIC's report reveals the difficulty it appears to be having in navigating between the Scylla of an economically vital industry that employs 12,500 people and the Charybdis of voter sensitivity to animal welfare. In her response to the RAIC report, cabinet secretary Mairi Gougeon dismissed a recommendation that powers be given to limit or halt production at salmon farms that record persistent, high mortality rates. Instead, analysis would merely be done to 'explore thresholds' for such mortality. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The need to display high standards Ultimately, Scottish salmon's reputation as a premium product rests on its ability to show consumers that it's engaged in the highest standard of animal welfare. In France, that reputation is embedded in the 'Label Rouge' quality mark awarded by the French government in 1992. This may matter less in distant markets like China and Taiwan, which are growing at a healthy clip. But reputation must continually be earned, and won't have been helped by video footage this week allegedly showing what animal rights campaigners at Green Britain Foundation said was 'systemic cruelty' to salmon at a fish farm on the Isle of Skye. Some restaurants are already voting with their menus. A campaign launched in 2022 called 'Off the Table' by WildFish to persuade chefs not to offer salmon has so far signed up restaurants in Australia, Iceland, the US and the UK, including The Palmerston in Edinburgh. 'Not enough research has been done so I don't have confidence in the system,' co-owner and chef Lloyd Morse tells me. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Meantime, climate change may be the industry's biggest threat. Scientists agree that ocean warming is making it easier for disease and parasites to take hold, with obvious consequences for densely packed salmon pens. 'The effect of climate on mortality of farmed salmon is one of the biggest elephants in the room,' says John Aitchison , an aquaculture spokesman at the CCN.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EU deal disastrous for Scotland, says fishing body
Scottish fishermen have accused Sir Keir Starmer's government of "capitulating" to the EU over a deal on access to UK waters. Labour ministers have agreed a 12-year deal which extends existing access for EU boats in exchange for reduced checks on food exports. The agreement, which also includes a defence and security pact, has been described as "disastrous" by the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF). But fish farming body Salmon Scotland has welcomed the new agreement as a "slashing of red tape" which will allow Scottish products and people easier access to the EU. The prime minister officially announced the deal as part of the first UK-EU summit, describing it as a "win-win". EU and UK reach 12-year fishing deal as leaders arrive for London summit UK and EU agree post-Brexit deal on fishing and trade He said the fishing agreement would protect UK access with no increase in EU vessels, while other measures meant shellfish could now be sold again in Europe. The new sanitary and phytosanitary agreement (SPS) would also benefit other agricultural exporters while holidaymakers will be able to use eGates at some airports to cut down on passport queue wait times, Starmer added. But First Minister John Swinney complained that devolved parliaments had not been consulted, showing that Scotland was an "afterthought" in the negotiations. "Once again, the fishing communities of Scotland have suffered as a consequence of negotiations by the United Kingdom government," he said. The previous post-Brexit deal saw the UK regain 25% of fishing rights from the EU, but it also gave European boats continuous access to UK waters. It was due to expire at the end of June 2026 but the new agreement will see that extended until the summer of 2038. The deal does not include any change to current access to fish for coastal communities. There is no reduction in the British quota or an increase in the quota the EU is allowed to catch. But SFF chief executive Elspeth MacDonald said the agreement would end any "leverage" the country had on future negotiations. She told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "This is not a roll over, it's a total capitulation to the EU and a disastrous outcome for the Scottish fishing fleet. "The EU have clearly reneged on a deal that they signed up to in 2020 and have said that they require to have another multi-year deal. "But in doing so the UK loses all its negotiating capital and all its leverage, so the EU continues to take a far bigger share of the resources in our waters than they are entitled to. "We've always been in this position where fishing seems to be the expendable price for something else that the UK wants." While the deal has been criticised, it has also been welcomed in other parts of Scotland's fishing and food production industries. Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland, said the new agreement would help cut the time taken to get products into the EU market. "This breakthrough will ease the burden on our farmers, processors and the communities they support," he said. "Scottish salmon is the UK's largest food export, with strong demand in the EU, the US and beyond." The deal also benefits shellfish producers after the EU banned British fishermen from selling live mussels, oysters, clams, cockles and scallops to its member states in 2021. Under those rules, fishermen were previously not allowed to transport the animals to the EU unless they had already been treated in purification plants. Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Association, described the deal as an "utter betrayal". He said it was the "third time" the fishing industry had been "sold down the river," citing decisions by former prime minister Ted Heath, who took the UK into the EU in 1973, and Boris Johnson, who negotiated its exit in the aftermath of Brexit in 2020. Mr Park said: "We understand the free flow of food products, the EU benefit from that and the UK benefit from it. "But here we have a massive fleet coming into UK waters and the UK fishing industry gets nothing out of it." Scottish Conservative MP for Gordon and Buchan, Harriet Cross, described the deal as a "surrender" and "one of the biggest acts of betrayal that our fishing industry has seen in Scotland." She said: "Our fishermen have been used as a pawn by Keir Starmer, which will result in catastrophic consequences for our coastal communities." The UK government also announced a £360m fund to invest in coastal communities as part of the agreement. It said that would go towards new technology and equipment to modernise the fleet, training to upskill workforces and help to "revitalise" coastal communities. About 4,000 people are employed in Scotland's commercial sea fishing industry, according to a Scottish government report published in 2023. In 2022, it brought £335m into the Scottish economy, more than half of which came from Aberdeenshire, including the UK's largest fishing port at Peterhead. Overall, fishing accounts for about 0.4% of the UK's GDP. The fish farming and aquaculture industries account for about 2,200 jobs and brought in £337m to the Scottish economy in 2022. In France, Scottish salmon became the first non-French product to carry the "Label Rouge" mark, given to products deemed to be of a "superior quality".
The Independent
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Government heads back to court in dispute over ‘farmed' label on Scottish salmon
A government decision to remove the word 'farmed' from Scottish salmon labels has prompted a bitter legal battle. Animal-welfare campaigners insist shoppers are being misled by dropping the tag because all Scottish salmon sold in mainstream UK supermarkets comes from farms. Charity Animal Equality UK has won permission to take the government to court a second time to fight the decision. In 2023, trade body Salmon Scotland proposed dropping the word 'farmed' from Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) labels so that packs would read just 'Scottish salmon'. The organisation said most consumers knew all supermarket Scottish salmon was farmed and had been for decades. The government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) approved the change in April last year. Appeals against the decision by both Animal Equality UK and another campaign group, WildFish, were rejected, and since then, PGI labels on most salmon on sale has been missing the word 'farmed', even if it is sometimes in small print elsewhere on the packet. The charity cites surveys suggesting shoppers wrongly believe supermarkets sell wild Scottish salmon. A 2021 Fidra Survey found that only 6 per cent of people knew all Scottish salmon was farmed, and a 2024 YouGov poll commissioned by Animal Equality found that 41 per cent of adults believed that at least some Scottish salmon was wild. PGI labels demonstrate regional products' origins, such as Cornish pasties and Champagne. The tribunal had ruled that changing 'Scottish farmed salmon' to 'Scottish salmon' was not likely to mislead consumers because 'true origin' PGI designations referred to geographical origin only. But the activists say the term should also refer to the method of production. In a highly unusual move, chamber president Judge Mark O'Connor granted permission to appeal against his own decision to the Upper Tribunal, on an 'exceptional' basis. The Independent has revealed how several salmon farms in Scotland have been accused of poor welfare, lice infestations and causing environmental harm. Footage has shown salmon suffocating to death, entering stun-kill machinery backwards, being thrown by workers and having their gills cut while conscious. More than 17 million fish died on Scottish salmon farms in 2023, with over 10 farms reporting over 50 per cent mortality. Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, claimed that dropping the word 'farmed' was 'a blatant assault on consumer transparency', saying: 'These animals spend their entire lives confined in underwater cages that are frequently plagued by lice infestations and disease outbreaks. 'Scotland's farmed salmon industry is in deep crisis. A Scottish government committee recently issued a scathing report calling for urgent regulatory reform and tighter scrutiny.' Edie Bowles, of law firm Advocates for Animals, said: 'The law on Protected Geographical Indications clearly requires that the public cannot be misled. There is strong evidence suggesting the public could be misled if Scottish farmed salmon is labelled as Scottish Salmon, as it could suggest wild-caught.' A spokesperson for Salmon Scotland accused campaigners of 'wanting to make people unemployed' and of wasting thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money with appeals. He said Scotland's salmon farming companies were investing more than £1m into work to save wild salmon. He added: 'Consumers know Scottish salmon is farm-raised in the cold, pristine waters off the coast of Scotland, demand at home and abroad is rising, and we are confident this latest appeal will be dismissed like all the other ones.'
Daily Record
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Record
Ex-Holyrood minister in formal lobbying probe over 'verbally attacking Tory MSP'
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: The former LibDem MSP is under investigation. A former government minister is under formal parliamentary investigation over claims he broke lobbying rules and verbally 'attacked' a Tory MSP. Ex-Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott, who is now CEO of industry body Salmon Scotland, faces a formal probe by Holyrood's Ethical Standards Commissioner. It comes after a complaint was lodged by renewable energy entrepreneur Dale Vince's Green Britain Foundation pressure group over a confrontation between Scott and Highlands and Islands MSP Edward Mountain. Scott, who led the Scottish Lib Dems from 2008 to 2011 and was a minister for seven years, continues to hold a parliamentary pass allowing him access to the corridors of power despite his new job which involves corporate lobbying for the fish farming industry. Vince said: 'We're talking about an industry already knee-deep in environmental carnage, now allegedly trying to dodge rules that keep our democracy honest. 'The publlic have a right to know which vested interests are whispering in politicians' ears. If Salmon Scotland's been playing fast and loose with lobbying laws, what else are they hiding. 'This reeks of an industry that thinks it's above the rules - whether that's environmental regulations or democratic transparency. It's time to drag their murky dealings into the light.' When the Sunday Mail previously revealed Scott had been reported over alleged lobbying transgressions he threatened to report us to press regulators and furiously denied there was any merit in the complaint. But Ethical Standards Commissioner Ian Bruce has now written to him and Salmon Scotland informing them of his decision to further investigate the October 2023 meeting with Mountain in which Scott has appeared to request he retract comments he made in parliament. It came after Mountain highlighted figures suggesting tonnes of salmon were being destroyed annually, and said: 'some are dying when they are harvested and they still reach our tables.' Later in a a meeting of the Rural and Island Committee Mountain accused Scott of 'attacking' him in his office. He said the Salmon Scotland chief threatened: 'The issue and your attitude are top of the agenda for the next board meeting. The board are very unhappy with you and are willing to take action against you, unless you retract your comments in the Parliament.' This meeting was not recorded in the lobbying register and GBF has accused Scott of failing to register a number of other meetings. Scott has denied breaking any rules. Scotland's farmed salmon market is estimated to be worth £1billion a year and supports thousands of jobs. However environmentalists have raised concerns it is spreading sea lice affecting wild salmon and there has also been accusations of pollution and fish held in putrid sea pens. A Salmon Scotland spokesman said: ''Salmon Scotland fully complies with the lobbying register.' Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon is facing a ministerial code probe after she and French husband Baptiste accepted hospitality from Salmon Scotland to watch France at Murrayfield in 2022 and last year. A total of £1500 worth of tickets, lunch and drinks at the 'hospitality village' received for February's Six Nations game were not included in Gougeon's official register of ministerial gifts or MSP interests. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Scottish Secretary Ian Murray have come in for criticism for taking free hospitality at Liverpool FC from Salmon Scotland last September. Salmon Scotland represents a 200-farm industry producing 140,000 tons of fish a yea which is worth £760million. A spokesman for the Ethical Standards Comm-issioner did not respond to our request for comment. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
