The Scottish First Minister's proud announcement of a trade deal with China that will boost farmed salmon production has been unquestioningly welcomed by most of the national media. C.O.A.S.T.'s Sally Campbell probes deeper into whether an expanded aquaculture industry is really a good idea or a nail in the coffin for one of our own iconic species.

The Scottish media has been alive with stories of pandas arriving at Edinburgh zoo and Scottish farmed salmon being produced for China.

Scottish farmed salmon are to be exported to China for the first time. It is reported that the Chinese demand for salmon and salmon products is huge, already at more than 150% of total Scottish output. Its demand for Atlantic salmon was up 42% in 2009 to 8000 tonnes. Previously much of the demand has been met from Norwegian aquaculture. Politics appear to have played a part in the new announcement since Norway upset the Chinese over the awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed dissident Liu Xiaobou.

As we are always saying at COAST, everything affects everything. Politics therefore may play a major role in further polluting our pristine coastal marine waters on the west of Scotland and create further negative impacts on our iconic wild salmon and trout rivers. Already Marine Harvest in The Oban Times on 27 January is quoted as “Looking to expand its farming activities in Scotland to meet the growing demand.” It is ironic that a Norwegian Company will benefit!

Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland welcomed the agreement saying “If even only 1% of the people of China decide to take the opportunity to eat Scottish salmon then we’ll have to double production in Scotland. He said it already supports 6,000 jobs in Scotland, worth £500m to the economy, with exports worth nearly £300m.

And in return? Two giant pandas on lease for 10 years to Edinburgh Zoo and PetroChina to buy a half share in the Grangemouth refinery from current owners Ineos. In addition China is to gain Scottish technology in petro-chemicals and renewable energy.  It is only a few weeks ago that Marine Harvest was advertising in The Oban Times for a Polish interpreter- so it seems their work force is increasingly from the wider EU. So, Alex Salmond should not pontificate on the benefits to Scottish workers! So the inshore waters of NW Scotland pay the price once again.

Already several conservation groups have commented on the proposed expansion of aquaculture: The Salmon and Trout Association’s latest newsletter summed it up extremely well:

“The Scottish Government's First Minister, Alex Salmond, recently declared that the Scottish fish farming industry may need to double its production of salmon to satisfy Chinese demand, following the signing of a new trade deal.  S&TA believes this could spell further disaster for Scotland's iconic and endangered West Highland wild salmon and sea trout stocks, and it is surely premature and irresponsible of the First Minister to signal such an enormous increase in farmed salmon production before the Scottish Government and fish farming industry have addressed their dire existing problems caused by fish farming.

This statement was particularly alarming in the light of public comments made at the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland Conference last March by a leading Government scientist, that the industry may well have reached its natural capacity, due mainly to the inability to control sea lice and disease in fish farms.

Guy Linley-Adams, the environmental lawyer leading our Aquaculture Campaign, suggested that, for the First Minister to advocate doubling the industry's output without apparently any prior consideration of his legal obligations towards the conservation of wild fish and the impact on the environment, merely demonstrated a lack of understanding and commitment within the Scottish Government towards protecting these valuable and iconic natural resources.

However, there was support for our stance from UK Fisheries Minister, Richard Benyon, who was quoted as agreeing that fish farming had adversely impacted wild fish stocks.  We can only hope for a similarly honest approach from the Scottish Government and the Scottish Salmon Producers' Association.

Meanwhile, the campaign continues, and Guy Lindley-Adams is presently in Norway meeting various high level officials to discuss the difference in approach to fish farming legislation and regulation between Norway and Scotland.  While Norway certainly still has a long way to go before it stops the impact its fish farming industry is having on wild fish, Scotland is way behind even them.”

www.salmon-trout.org/Chinese Deal for Scottish Farmed Salmon

It seems to me that there needs to be a big effort on those of us who value the marine/coastal environment and its link with fresh water lochs and rivers in western Scotland to come together to ensure that there is not a race to the bottom of environmental sustainability of our wonderful marine ecosystem. We need to ensure sustainability of the whole ecosystem and not simply increase profits through salmon aquaculture by Marine Harvest and others. The Scottish Government holds the commons of the sea in trust for all of its citizens, and has a duty to care for it for all of us, not just sectoral interests with large PR budgets or the ear of Scottish Ministers, particularly where other interests are just as valuable to the Scottish economy and the Scottish psyche.

It is not only wild salmon and sea trout fishing that has suffered through a lack on management of the marine environment.  Sea Angling in Scotland was once much more common and income generating, especially in the Clyde, until white fish particularly, were out fished through modern methods and through bottom trawling for Nephrops and dredging for scallops. The work of Ayrshire Rivers Trust (www.ayrshireriverstrust.org) has shown the collapse in sea trout stock over time, which mirror the collapse of white fish stocks in the Clyde. The damage to the benthos and delicate epifauna, which support juvenile fish, is well documented.

In January the Scottish Sea Anglers Conservation Network (SSACN) produced a series of essays on topics relevant to sea angling. 2011-Think Again. (www.ssacn.org/2011-think-again).  Richard Lochhead, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment  contributed a paper “Making its Mark”. The Recreational Sea Angling Strategy (RSA) has received increased attention from the Scottish Government over the past few years. Lochhead writes that “This is to the credit of the sport’s many enthusiasts and champions such as those in the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN). Due to your efforts and those of others, government is increasingly better informed about the appeal, impact and potential of the sector.
Research for the Scottish Government into the economic impact of RSA (Recreational Sea Angling Strategy) in Scotland, published in 2009 (Radford and Riddington:  Economic Impact of Recreational Sea Angling in Scotland) found that more than 3000 jobs are supported by the sector and that RSA brings in more than £140 million each year. The study estimated that more than 125,000 adults and 23,000 young people went sea angling in Scotland. That is the equivalent of one and a half million sea angler days. It highlights the potential benefits for Scotland from supporting growth in the range and quality of what is available in Scotland for present and new participants in RSA. This is a sustainable industry, supportive of communities, generating revenue for the tourism and sea angling sector.”

All these activities depend on clean and healthy seas and ecosystems. To sacrifice these for short-term profits both in aquaculture and mobile bottom trawling and dredging seems crazy to me. But there are more voices being raised in 2011 in defence of the marine environment around Scotland and the many jobs it supports, which depend on good governance. At the present time, communities in England are up in arms about the proposal to sell off the commons in that case they are the forests. Well, we need to watch that our inshore sea is not sold off to the highest bidder, or the ones with the greatest influence in Edinburgh. We must join together to ensure our grandchildren have pollution free, disease-free inshore waters and healthy benthos and not just a couple of pandas on loan to a zoo !