One Million Salmon Escape

FAOL Community Sound Off
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This is the latest press release from the Salmon Farm Protest Group -

The Salmon Farm Protest Group

An ruda na bo bhroin, cha bhi e na do thmhnadh

?That which you have wasted will not be there for future generations?

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE

9th January 2007

FISH FARMERS NAMED AND SHAMED!

The Salmon Farm Protest Group (SFPG) can now reveal the names of the fish farmers who allowed more than 1 million farmed salmon to escape or die in their cages during 2005.

Following the landmark decision by the Scottish Freedom of Information Commissioner (Decision 182/2006) that forced the Scottish Executive?s Fisheries Research Services (FRS) to disclose the name of a fish farmer involved in an escape incident in 2006, the SFPG asked the FRS for the names of fish farmers involved in all escapes and fish deaths during 2005.

Top of the list is Norwegian-owned Stolt Sea Farms Ltd who lost 321,000 farmed salmon during the year.127,000 escaped from sea cages at Eilean Dubh in North Uist, whilst 194,000 salmon smolts escaped from their Loch an Eilean Liath site to the south of Stornoway.

Next is North Uist Fisheries Ltd who lost 169,000 fish, including 151,821 smolts from Loch Scadavay, North Uist, when the cages broke up due to severe weather conditions.

Marine Harvest Scotland Ltd come third with a total of 153,874 escaped fish from sites at Loch Seaforth, Gousam, Bay of Vady and Hole Bay. In 2005 Marine Harvest was owned by Dutch multi-national Nutreco. It has since been taken over by Norwegian-owned Pan Fish.

Pan Fish Ltd lost 120,000 fish from their Strome site in Loch Carron. The FRS report, ?Cage walkways sank and took the net below waterline allowing the fish to escape during galeforce conditions. Following the initial cage failure, the cage failed again and more fish escaped.?

Another Norwegian-owned company, Fjord Seafood Scotland Ltd lost 101,013 salmon from two sites at Linngeam and Greinham Island, whilst 65,000 salmon smolts died in the cages during a storm in South Uist at Loch Moreef, owned by South Side Salmon.

Other losses occurred at sites owned by Scottish Sea Farms (43,453), Murray Seafoods Ltd (22,500). Landcatch Ltd (3,608) and Loch Duart Ltd (3,000).

SFPG chairman Bruce Sandison said, ?Farm salmon escapes seriously damage the genetic integrity of our wild fish stocks. Now, for the first time, fish farmers who allow their salmon to escape will have no place to hide. They will be named and shamed. The public will also be able judge for themselves the true value of the Scottish Salmon Producers (SSPO) voluntary ?Code of Good Practice? and what, if anything, the SSPO or the Scottish Executive will do make these fish farmers clean up their act.?

For more information about the work of the SFPG see www.salmonfarmmonitor.org

Hysbackie, Tongue, by Lairg, Sutherland IV27 4XJ, Scotland

Tel: 01847 611274; Fax: 01847 611262; email: bruce@hysbackie.freeserve.co.uk

A company registered in Scotland, No.240223

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Farmed salmon escapes from sea cages and mortalities

of farmed salmon smolts in freshwater cages in 2005

Stolt Sea Farms Ltd 321,000

North Uist Fisheries Ltd 169,435

Marine Harvest Scotland Ltd 153,874

Pan Fish Scotland Ltd 120,000

Fjord Seafood Scotland Farming Ltd 101,013

South Side Salmon 65,000

Scottish Sea Farms Ltd 43,453

Murray Seafoods Ltd 22,500

Landcatch Ltd 3,608

Loch Duart Ltd 3,000

TOTAL 1,002,883

Worst farm salmon escape from sea cages:

Stolt Sea Farms site at Eilean Dubh on the east side of the Island of North Uist.

127,000 farm salmon escaped when the site broke up and ran aground,

allowing the fish to escape.

Worst farm salmon smolt escape from freshwater cages:

Stolt Sea Farms Ltd site at Loch an Eilean Liath, south of Stornoway on the Island of Lewis.

194,000 smolts escaped when the site broke up due to sever weather conditions

Worst mortality in fish farm cages:

South Side Salmon site at Loch Moreef in South Glendale on the Island of South Uist.

65,000 salmon smolts killed when hurricane force winds destroyed cages

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:evil: :evil:

Salmon farming is bad

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thanks, Donald. Salmon farming , I can think of nothing good about it. Nothing.

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Donald,
Maybe the Lawyers of these Salmon Farmers told them it was a Win Win business or Low Risk business.
After all nobody is getting hurt or killed!
Is this mess created by the Farmers the result of Politicians being ignorant about Fish issues?
It puzzles me that someone would want to eat a salmon that was grown in a pen, fed food with a red dye in it.
Doug

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guess where the prawns you buy at the grocery store come from. Yep, from prawn and shrimp farms in Southeast Asia and it is an environmental mess.

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As far as Prawns are concerned, I’m living in denial.
Doug

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I never, ever eat prawns. And I never will. I am allergic to them (they sure used to be good, though).

Greg

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Gardenfish or Dshock dose OR alow salmon farming? I know BC and Washington state do and their fish keep excaping and finding their way into Alaskan waters :evil:

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My unofficial answer is no.
Pacific Seafood Company has been at war with our commercial fishermen. PSC offered a low amount and the fishermen said were not starting up the engines, risking our lives in winter seas for THAT!
My hat is off to the modern day commercial fishermen, because regulations, short seasons and negotiation problems make the job difficult.
I don’t know what the answer is because the public wants to eat seafood, but farming is a experiment that’s not sensible in the short term or long term.
Doug

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Amending my story, the commercial fishermen in negotiations with PSC were from San Francisco Cal.
Doug :oops:

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I eat Bluegill. To my knowledge, there are no commerical Blue Gill fish farms that raise and process the fish for market. As Guinness is good for you, so is the Blue Gill.

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Our fish monger used to sell farm gills. Large Mouth Bass are also available live from some places.

IMHO In the big picture, Atlantic Farmers that farm Atlantic Salmon are not nearly as big a threat as Pacific Farmers who farm Atlantic Salmon. I cringe to think of the disruption that escaped Atlantic Salmon could cause in West Coast Fisheries.

BTW Gills go best with a good All American brew like Stroh’s.

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Jonezee,
Bluegill are too cute to eat! :smiley:
Yrs ago when I kept my limit, my grandma used to say “Doug Let The Poor Little Fish GO!” I would say NO! She was a early conservationist!
Another time at Paulina Lake, my Dad and I froze our butts off for hours to catch some fish and when we got back to the cabin, my grandma announced that she wanted TEN fish for the people in her TRAILER PARK!
I told her “YOUR NOT GETTING THEM! END OF STORY!”
You DON’T want to make your grandma MAD! :shock:
Doug :smiley:

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I talked to my Seafood Man at the store today. I asked him about the Atlantic Salmon he had for sale. He said the Salmon was raised OFF shore in a huge net, ate natural food, was brought inshore, fed something to redden it’s skin and sold.
My question is; Are there TWO different Salmon Farm techniques?
Doug

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thats pretty much how they farm salmon. but they feed them pelets not natural food the red color in the flesh comes from something they put in their food not from their natural food.
wild salmon taste so much better If you ever get the chance try Kenai river reds or Copper river reds best salmon out their.

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OR

if you ever get to catch one yourself…now you’re talkin good eatin :wink:

as for the flesh colour, the pink is from eating crustaceans while they are at sea(or large lakes, as the species and area may dicatate). Happens with alot of sea creatures. I raised a rock crab once that had a completely white shell because all it ever ate was blue mussel flesh…no pigments from crustaceans, no red colour in it’s shell.

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I do catch my own Only 100 miles to the Kenai for me. If I want to settle for silvers cambell creek is only 1 block away Gotta love Alaska. I was just saying if you live in the lower 48 and you see those fish in the market buy em and try em

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PaGuy,
A FRESH WILD Salmon down here is as good as GOLD!
Doug :smiley:

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Dime a dozen here. :smiley:

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Gardenfish, we have prawn farmers here in Tennessee who grow them in ponds. These ponds aren’t dammed streams, they have been excavated. I think that they are drained for harvest. Most commercial ponds that I have been familiar with get drained from time to time to control disease and nitrogen build-up. You wouldn’t believe the crop of corn that grows during the fallow year from some ponds. It all depends on how it is done. There are right ways and wrong ways.

In the Victorian Era the terms “good form” and “bad form” were quite accurate and useful. Pity that usage evolved and they lost their meaning.