Challenge: According to Intrafish, the Institute of Marine Research has told them that the salmon farms in Northern Norway are releasing over 160 million new salmon lice larvae every hour. They say its extreme. I say it is just making mischief.
In the last issue of reLAKSation, I highlighted the over simplistic formula that IMR have used to calculate the number of sea lice in a salmon farm pen based on the small number of fish sampled. Together with a basic lack of understanding of parasite ecology. IMR are highly overestimating the number of sea lice on salmon farms and thus the claimed risk to wild fish.
This latest claim that 3.8 billion sea lice larvae are produced on farms every day in the north is just another example of this over-estimation. It is akin to plucking a number of sea lice out of the air and is relatively meaningless. Yet whilst IMR are quick to give bad press to the industry, it is easily forgotten that such allegations generate lots of extra research for IMR and other such organisations.
IMR refer to their sea lice models and given all the resources available to IMR in terms of people and funding, I challenge them to move beyond the models and get out in a boat and sample the sea around these northern farms to demonstrate, not only that these sea larvae exist, but are present in the numbers claimed.
I for one won’t be holding my breath for such work to be undertaken or obtaining any results. It would be far too much to ask for IMR to actually prove the claims they make about salmon farming. There is far too much reliance on their models and on the assumptions on which the models were built.
Perhaps it is time for the salmon farming sector to stand up and issue the same challenge. At the moment, the work of the Sea Lice Expert Group and others does not stand up to scrutiny. Is this why the sea lice scientific community are so reluctant to discuss the actual impacts?
It is claimed that sea lice and escapes are the greatest threat to wild salmon in Norway. The reality is that the greatest threat to wild salmon comes directly from the scientists themselves.
Just Imagine: iLAKS reports that the Veterinary Institute are claiming that the high temperatures in Northern Norway have meant that there are ‘hugh’ numbers of lice larvae in the sea right now. They say that it is not difficult to imagine that louse larvae production is high now.
I would suggest that for many involved in sea lice research, their imagination appears to take precedent over any reality.
If there are huge amounts of larval lice in the sea, how difficult can it be to demonstrate that they are actually present as claimed.
Visit: As the Rural Affairs Committee inquiry progresses, it increasingly seems that the committee are not really interested in hearing the truth about salmon farming and preferring instead to further vilify the sector.
During the summer break I sent in my submission to the committee. After a few weeks, I was surprised to see that this had not appeared in the list of correspondence. I wrote to ask why this was and was told that not all correspondence was being published. A few days later, a very anti-salmon farming submission appeared in the correspondence so I wrote again to suggest that it could be inferred that there was some bias in the publication of correspondence and it was not balanced. I requested a full list of correspondence under FOI to which the committee said that the committee’s website was being redeveloped and that once completed all correspondence would be published, which eventually it was. Given the amount of claimed opposition to salmon farming, it was surprising how few negative submissions were actually sent to the committee.
I’ve written previously how surprising it is that whilst the constant theme of the inquiry relates to sea lice, the committee did not call a sea lice specialist to give evidence. Instead, they posed such questions to representatives of local community and angling groups and others on the fringes of the science.
This last weekend, six members of the committee travelled to Scotland’s west coast to see the salmon farming industry for themselves. Yet, rather than spend all their time learning about salmon farming, they first held a session with local stakeholders and then went on a visit to SAMS.
I am led to understand that John Aitchison of Friends of Jura, who are members of Coastal Communities Network as well as being a member of CCN aquaculture group and who attended the first evidence session at Holyrood, also attended this meeting in Oban. Equally a representative from SAMS also attended a session at the Scottish Parliament and no doubt will have hosted the MSPs at the laboratory.
These two evidence sessions could have been given to those who could have provided the committee with specific knowledge relevant to salmon farming rather than listen to those who knowledge can be best described as cursory and who have their own agenda.
Of course, the problem with these inquiries is that they are dependent on the questions posed by committee members rather than by hearing first about the topics they wish to subsequently discuss. I suppose it would be too much to hope that the committee members might keep an open mind rather than let their view be formed by what appears in the press and social media.
Visit too: According to reports in the Guardian and Times newspapers as well as on BBC TV, the members of the Rural Affairs and Islands committee were not the only ones to visit the fish farm this week. Whether by total coincidence or whether they were tipped off, but representatives of Animal Equality were present, armed with their drones, to ensure that everything and anything the farmers might do would be put on record.
Animal Equality also filmed the MSPs during their visit, a timely reminder of the constant scrutiny the industry is under. However, at the beginning of the day, the drones recorded the collection of those fish that had succumbed, most likely from totally unnecessary sea lice treatments imposed on the industry due to ill-informed, theoretical and unqualified claims that salmon farming is having a negative impact on wild fish. Collecting these fish is a daily routine as is collecting dead birds on poultry farms. To quote a young farmer interviewed on BBC Countryfile where there are live animals there are dead animals.
However, rather than highlight the fact that salmon have died as Animal Equality usually do, they have made the story of interest to the media by claiming that the workers were sanitising the farm prior to the MSP visit. This is simply Animal Equality aiming to raise their media profile and give themselves more credibility. Whilst the focus of the story is supposedly animal welfare, there is no mention of the fact that Animal Equality is simply against faming animals for food per se. Under normal circumstances, the media would dismiss their views as of minimal interest, but because they focus their attention on salmon farming, Animal Equality get the media coverage they aspire to.
According to the BBC, Animal Equality have accused the salmon farming industry of wanting to hide the truth rather than tackle the serious issues it faces. This raises the question of why the farm workers would continue to remove any fish that have died when a drone is operating in the vicinity of the farm. Equally, why would the farm staff remove dead fish in the open when they could have left them in the collection sock out of sight?
Animal Equality also said that the industry does not have the handle on parasites and diseases that run rampant through fish farms which they believe are too densely stocked. However, last year I responded to this, and other claims and surprisingly was telephoned by Abigail Penny, their executive director. I offered to visit them and explain this issues to her, but she made it cleat that she wasn’t interested in hearing solutions unless it was the closure of the industry.
What I find most interesting about the Animal Equality video is the way that it has been widely endorsed on social media by those who support salmon angling. How quickly they forget that their sector is perceived as being ‘inherently cruel’ by those who are also ready to attack the salmon farming industry.
Of course, Animal Equality have already shown their hand by challenging the planning application of the land-based farm proposed for Grimsby. Many within the angling sector see land-based farming as a solution, but Animal Equality just don’t want to see animal farmed.
Stand Up: The Animal Equality video is just the latest in a long line of criticism from anglers, vegans, environmentalists, conspiracy theorists, and other assorted activists. No matter what the industry does, it makes someone unhappy.
I have for long argued that the sector has a good story to tell and the only way to get this heard properly is to stand up and challenge the criticism head on. It seems that anyone can say what they like, and it is accepted as the truth.
However, I would suggest that the first target should be the scientific community that maintain sea lice associated with salmon farms have a negative impact. If the scientific community are so confident about their narrative, they should have no problem defending their views face to face. My experience to date, is that most of them run a mile to avoid having to justify their science.
If we as an industry are proud of what we do, we should not have to accept the nonsense that is so often thrown at us. We should stand up and defend our position.