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  PlanetArk 20 Jan 06
Scottish Organic Salmon Farms Face Wildlife Fears
Story by Nigel Hunt

LONDON - Fears that Scotland's organic salmon farms are a threat to the country's rare wild salmon and other fish species have prompted heated debate about the future of the industry.

"There is nothing organic about them at all," said Bruce Sandison, chairman of the Salmon Farm Protest Group, noting concerns about the impact on Scotland's wild salmon and other fish in the region.

The Soil Association, which sets organic rules in Britain, has uniquely only approved salmon standards that have an interim status and is working to come up with a more permanent regime that addresses the worries of environment groups. The organic body's ruling council is due to consider the issue later this year.

"It is a hotly contested debate (within the Soil Association). I personally think it is appropriate to call them organic," said Hugh Raven, the Soil Association's director of aquaculture, adding that standards needed to be improved.

Farmed salmon, both organic and conventional, grow at a rapid rate in huge cages off the coast of Scotland, fed on a diet rich in fish oils and meal. One of the most serious concerns is that escaped farm salmon breed with wild salmon, reducing the latter group's survival prospects.

"Carefully bred farm salmon are escaping. Characteristics that allow them to thrive in farms are not those which allow for survival in the wild," Raven said. He added that this was "enfeebling the wild stock in a way that may well prove to be irreversible."

"In my personal judgment this could be the Achilles heel for the whole industry."

ORGANIC EXPANSION

Raven said the organic salmon market had been growing at a fast pace and accounted for about 3-4 percent of total production, a market share similar to that of other organic foods.

"Plans among producers, processors and retailers are for a very significant expansion," he said.

Organic salmon farmers are distinguished from Scotland's much larger conventional salmon sector through meeting a series of standards including using waste products from the wider fisheries industry and so lessening exploitation of nearby fish resources.

Farm sites must also have good tides to ensure the fish stay fit and must be in areas that minimise the threat from a major parasite, sea lice. Sea lice can spread rapidly through a confined farmed salmon population and some argue they pose a serious threat to nearby wild fish populations.

Sandison of the Salmon Farm Protest Group said he believed sea lice from salmon farms had contributed to a drop in the sea trout population off western Scotland. "They should call them sea lice farms rather than salmon farms. They (sea lice) breed in billions," he said.

Sandison said he believed the solution would be to move the salmon farms to inland sites, so preventing contact with wild fish. Raven saw some benefits from moving the farms from coastal waters but said he believed the industry would then be economically unviable.

He also noted significant amounts of energy would be used pumping seawater inland. "I think you can farm salmon at sea without these problems arising," Raven said, noting he was working on a programme that would significantly improved standards and result in the removal of the industry's interim tag.
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