Opinion
SIFTing the facts
There is a new worrying trend beginning to appear in the world of science and especially in the science relating to salmon farming. The Sunday Post recently highlighted a new scientific paper detailing carbon emissions produced by the salmon farming sector in Scotland. The research was undertaken at the School of Geosciences at Edinburgh University.…
Read MoreAccountability
In last month’s edition of Fish Farmer, you will have seen a report on the serious decline of wild salmon, not just on the West Coast of Scotland as it was previously mooted. I describe it that way because there are too many statistics challenging the notion that the coasts are fundamentally different. There never…
Read MoreA new Prime Minister
As a lobbyist, it is always worth taking victories – however small – where you can get them. So, with all the turmoil that is to come in her Premiership, it is worth remembering that we now have a Prime Minister who knows about salmon farming. Liz Truss not only visited the main processing plant…
Read MoreSelective science
Readers of my reLAKSation blog will know that I have repeatedly referred to the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Economy committee meeting of 18 November 2020 in which SEPA’s Head of Ecology said that sea lice from salmon farms are not responsible for the decline of wild fish. I keep mentioning this because the wild fish sector…
Read MoreHome truths
Sometimes you can just see it when the penny drops. I was with an MSP on an island salmon farm not so long ago. The MSP – it would be unfair to name them – had listened politely to all the talk about salmon farming health and welfare, rearing and harvesting without really engaging. But…
Read MoreThe price of everything…
The saying goes that there are many people who know the price of everything but the value of nothing. At a time when prices are rising and everyone foresees trouble ahead, this seems true of so many of us. Salmon prices are at an all-time high, along with so many other costs rising. I will…
Read MoreStemming the tide
I recently participated in the Seafood Matters meeting held at Stirling University and co-hosted by Lancaster University and the University of Aberdeen. I was specifically asked to answer the following question – recognising salmon’s successes at reaching more consumers, why is seafood consumption still declining? What are we doing wrong? And have we broadly failed…
Read MoreMessage in a box
Tucked away in the corner of one of the bigger barns at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Show was a three-metre cube with three simple words on it: “Scottish Salmon Experience.” It could have been described as a small cinema but, really, it was much, much more than that. Inside, visitors were transported to a salmon farm…
Read MoreTrade travails
The final leg of their journey was undertaken in a pair of six-seater taxis from Edinburgh but, given the distances they had travelled just to get to that point, they probably would have travelled by horse-drawn trap had that been the only means available. These were vets, customs officials and government employees from Mongolia. They…
Read MoreThe big picture
Online meetings may have kept the shellfish industry in touch over the past two years, but it was a relief to everyone to be able to attend the 52nd Annual Conference of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (SAGB) in person this year. The conference covered both farmed and fished shellfish. This report does not…
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