Pollution Minister 'Out of Touch' on Fish Farming, Say Greens
Thu., December 04, 2003. 00:00.
Green MSPs today described Executive Minister Allan Wilson as being 'completely out of touch' with the Executive's own policies on sustainable aquaculture, following the Ministers comments on the publication of a survey that revealed a 5% increase in farmed salmon production during 2002. (1)
Today, the Minister responsible for reducing the pollution and environmental damage caused by fish farming, welcomed the increase in production and described it as sustainable growth. The Greens however, raised concerns that such growth was taking place in the absence of promised policy to work out a sustainable future path for the industry. The Greens highlighted the failure to calculate the 'carrying capacity' of the marine environment and provide locational guidelines to stop the decimation of wild salmonid species. (2)
The Greens also pointed out that whilst industrial salmon rearing has increased five-fold since the early nineties, the employment levels have actually decreased. In the early nineties with production around 30,000 tonnes the industry employed 1491 people, compared to today's figures of 145,609 tonnes, with 1,306 jobs.
Robin Harper MSP said, 'It seems questionable that we should be hailing further production growth without having in place a proper strategy for the future development of the industry on an environmentally sustainable basis. These figures underline the fact that whilst salmon production has expanded dramatically in the last ten years, the level of employment has remained fairly static. This means that the ever-present demands of the industry to grow and grow, will not necessarily create any significant growth in jobs. Estimates of the number of people indirectly employed have never been substantiated or fully researched.'
'The enormous impact that salmon farming has had on the environment during its ten years of exponential growth, coupled with a declining jobs-production ratio, means that this industry is way off being a sustainable enterprise where growth can be said to be good for people and the environment.'
'This is not 'sustainable' growth as the Minister has said, indeed it is worrying that whilst the Scottish Executive has called for urgent research into the marine environment's capacity to cope with salmon farming pressure. Growth is continuing without long term security built in - that is an example of poor economic management, nevermind bad environmental care.'
Harper went on to describe the environmental impact of the salmon farming industry on wild salmon stocks as an economic as well as an environmental disaster for Scotland, 'We have to see economic progress, not growth in any direction - the exponential growth of salmon farming precedes a proper management system to make sure the impact is minimised, and sustainable. Wild salmon stocks in particular, which carry enormous economic value, are not factored in to the Minister's comments and that is extremely narrow minded economic thinking in anyone's book. Equal weight should given to job conservation in rod fishing and tourism.'
Notes to Editors
(1) Key statistics published today:
* Production of salmon in 2002 was up five point one per cent from 138,519 tonnes to 145,609 tonnes, the tenth consecutive annual increase.
* Employment of staff involved in salmon production rose to 1,306 an increase of 49.
(2) A strategic framework and an action plan for the future of the industry still has to be completed and put in place.
- We still don't have environmental standards met across the fish farming industry
- The Strategic Framework for Aquaculture location/relocation working group is due to develop location criteria by 2004. It is critical that these criteria are based on sound knowledge of where Scotland's sensitive and precious wildlife resources are, including protected sites and species and genetically pure wild salmon stocks.
- The Strategic Framework for Aquaculture committed to the production of a draft code of practice for consultation by the end of 2003. Environmental bodies have not yet been involved in this process, despite the fact that it is to consider environmental best practice.
- The Strategic Framework for Aquaculture committed to report on a model for determining carrying capacity by autumn 2003. This consultation report is still expected.
(3) Escapee farmed salmon pose a great threat to the future of wild salmon stocks A recent report published by the Royal Society on the impacts of interbreeding between wild and cultivated salmon (McGinnity et al, Queen's University Belfast) shows that farmed salmon can interbreed with wild salmon, and that the interbred salmon have low survival rates, threatening our wild salmon stocks with extinction. The report states that the number of fish farm escapes in the North Atlantic is equivalent to about 50% of the TOTAL number of wild adult salmon in the sea.
Scottish Executive figures show that hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon escape in Scottish waters each year and that escaped salmon now outnumber wild caught salmon by over 7 to 1.
Scottish Executive figures from 2000 estimate that 440,000 salmon escaped in 16 separate incidents. In 2002, according to Scottish Executive figures, anglers only caught 57,920 salmon, a decline of 20 per cent compared to the 2001 catch and 89 per cent of the 1997-2001 5-year average.
George Baxter
Head of Media
Scottish Green MSPs
Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh EH99 1SP
Tel: 0131 348 6376
Mob: 0790 99 33 074
Fax: 0131 348 5972
Contact the Scottish Greens' press team on 07909 933 074.