On December 31st 52,000 farmed salmon escaped from a farm at Portree. Escaped farmed salmon interbreed with wild salmon by sheer force of numbers. The hybrid fish are not genetically programmed to survive life in the wild and an ICES study concluded that escapes are the major factor in the decline of wild salmon.
 
The industry is blaming seals for the tear in the net, other causes could be weather, or wear and tear. Even if it was seals, are they to blame if a farm is not using the best netting available?
 
Fish farm companies have a choice: use single cheaper traditional nets and ADDs, use a single net of stronger material such as Seal Pro or Saffire Ultracore nets incorporating stainless steel, or the best option, double netting with a traditional net inside a strong outer net of mesh size mesh size designed not to enmesh marine mammals.
 
 Double nets and stronger single nets are in use in some farms in Scotland, double nets are used in British Columbia where ADDs are banned, also in Turkey and Tasmania
 
The Portree farm was fitted with the least effective system, single traditional nets, which were due to be replaced by the stronger seal pro netting.
 
 The deadline for applications from fish farms to licence the currently illegal use of ADDs was last friday (see the previous update for details). Marine Scotland have so far refused to make the applications available to the public, ignoring legal obligations to do so and our formal complaint.

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