Next Monday Marine Scotland report to parliament on Acoustic Deterrent Devices (ADDs). In a dramatic U-turn the salmon farming industry has withdrawn applications to licence the use of ADDs, but the illegal use of these devices continues.
Please email your MSPs, send them this update and share the petition.
The story so far: it is an offence under Scottish law to disturb or injure any porpoise, dolphin or whale (cetaceans). 140 salmon farms use the cheapest technology to deter seals: ‘traditional’ single nets and acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs). In 2017 government conservation advisors SNH advised Marine Scotland, whose job it is to enforce the law, that ADDs disturb, displace and cause hearing injury to cetaceans. Hearing injury is a death sentence to an echolocating cetacean, but MS ignored this advice and did not enforce the law.
People love porpoise, dolphins and whales and this 30,750 name petition, newspapers, television coverage, and a legal opinion have put pressure on Marine Scotland, who in December 2020 stated that “given current scientific advice, it is likely that all currently available ADDs could cause disturbance to cetaceans at the individual level” and advised that if farms wish to continue using ADDs they must apply for European Protected Species (EPS) licence.
The disturbance and injury would be legal if ADDs held EPS licences. But licences can only be issued if strict tests can be passed: there has to be ‘no satisfactory alternative’ to the use of ADDs and ‘favourable conservation status’ of cetaceans must be restored or maintained despite the cumulative widespread use of ADDs. But there are ‘satisfactory alternatives’ already in use: more responsible companies here and abroad, use double-skinned anti-predator nets or stronger more rigid nets and do not use ADDs. Marine Scotland have stated that increased cost or inconvenience is not a reason to claim an alternative is not ‘satisfactory’.
Marine Scotland set deadlines of 15th January for EPS licence applications to be submitted and of March 1st for the licencing process to be completed.
Marine Scotland ignored the Nolan principles which set standards for public servants. They did not publish the EPS licence applications for public scrutiny despite an official complaint and they have not engaged in debate over their demonstrably unsound science which would greatly underestimate the numbers of cetaceans disturbed and injured. Because the regulatory process is broken, we summarised the science in updates to this petition. People have been emailing MSPs, and MSPs from all parties have been contacting Marine Scotland, Parliamentary Questions have been lodged and yesterday the Sunday Times published an article.
Breaking News: one week before the March 1st deadline the fish farm companies have withdrawn all EPS licence applications. The industry blames Marine Scotland for ‘a lack of clarity’, but to be fair to Marine Scotland their advice that the continued use of ADDs requires EPS licences is very clear. The industry cannot prove that ADDs which output 179 decibels or more do not disturb cetaceans (which are disturbed at 100 decibels) and the EPS licensing tests cannot be passed because responsible farms are already using ‘satisfactory alternatives’.
Marine Scotland must without further delay comply with their duty to enforce the laws protecting cetaceans and ban the use of ADDs. We support an amnesty for farms to be allowed to continue to use ADDs until the end of their current production cycle.
Salmon companies might try to claim that low frequency ‘acoustic startle devices’ (ASDs) under development do not disturb cetaceans and therefore do not need EPS licences. However, there is considerable scientific doubt over claims that you can disturb seals but not cetaceans. Marine Scotland have advised “the hearing ranges of seals and cetaceans overlap, so there may be limited scope for identification of deterrents to which only seals are sensitive.” The SARF 112 study found both low frequency and high frequency ADDs disturb porpoises.
Another study (Gotz 2020) found that a low frequency ASD disturbed bottlenose dolphins at well below the 182 decibel output of the device: two captive dolphins were exposed to a simulated ASD signal. The dolphins showed the first signs of startle reflex 146 to 150 decibels with very strong reactions at slightly higher sound levels. The ‘startle reflex’ is an extreme disturbance reaction to noise with a rise time of a few milliseconds from silence to full output.
Please email all your MSPs: they have the power to ensure that the laws protecting porpoises, dolphins and whales are enforced. Copy and paste this update if you wish. Ask them to stop the use of ADDs, with an amnesty period until the end of current stocking cycle. Ask them to insist that all ADDs and ASDs are banned unless it can be proven beyond scientific doubt by independent scientists, overseen by a stakeholder committee including tourism, coastal community and conservation interests that a device cannot disturb any cetacean.