A charity has said a new report it has published on animal welfare in the Scottish salmon farming sector reveals an “enormous gap between the best farms and the worst offenders”.
OneKind described the findings of its research, which include league tables ranking standards at farms and companies, as a “serious wake-up call” to the industry.
Responding to the report yesterday, the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) said its members worked “tirelessly” to ensure fish were reared to high welfare standards.
OneKind ranked the 184 salmon farms operating in Scotland last year, using data on fish mortalities, escapes, “biomass exceedance”, seal shooting and sea lice burdens.
Marine Harvest farms, Poll na Gille, in Argyll, MacLean’s Nose, in Lochaber, and Bagh dail nan Cean, also in Argyll, were identified as having the highest “negative welfare scores,” along with Vuia Beag, run by the Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) in Lewis.
At the other end of the league, the charity named Ardmair-based Wester Ross Fisheries, as “by far the standout company in 2017 for animal welfare”.
Among companies, Loch Duart, which has 10 farms in Sutherland and the Outer Hebrides, had the highest average negative welfare score, followed by Marine Harvest, then SSC.
OneKind director Harry Huyton said: “We hope that these league tables, which OneKind will update annually, will act as a serious reminder to the industry that they must urgently up their game when it comes to fish welfare, and to encourage salmon farming companies to address these challenges.”
SSPO chief executive Julie Hesketh-Laird said: “Working in nature inevitably means that farmers deal with, as part of their regular routine, environmental challenges which occur naturally and predators which can cause significant damage and harm the welfare of farm-raised salmon.”
She added that not all of the key indicators chosen by OneKind accurately reflected the “care taken at farms to ensure good animal welfare”.
Loch Duart managing director Alban Denton said the company was “immensely proud” of its welfare track record and of helping to introduce RSPCA standards into Scottish salmon farming.
Marine Harvest and SSC, which are SSPO members, did not comment on the report.