Current Newsletter Have your say on Scottish fish farming
Have your say on Scottish fish farming
A Scottish government consultation on aquaculture and fisheries provides a key opportunity to contribute to the future management of the marine environment. Submissions must be made by Friday 2nd March.
COAST will submit its response to the consultation document, but we encourage any other interested individuals or organisations
to input into this important area of policy.
The Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill will hopefully herald a new, more transparent, regulatory culture, which could give statutory backing to Farm Management Agreements, establish new Technical Standards for farming and oblige fish farms to share information about sea lice infestations and fish escapes. It is also proposed within the consultation that aquaculture companies running fish farms in Scotland will have to provide samples of fish when necessary.
Amazingly, whilst Sainsbury's proudly markets to its customers that Marine Harvest's farmed salmon is fully traceable to a specific loch, scientific researchers have less access to useful genetic information from fish farms. Although inspectors can currently take samples of farmed fish from the companies, the powers to do so are limited and aquaculture companies have refused in some cases to supply samples of their fish to local fisheries managers for research purposes.
Unfortunately, there is no clear indication of when any new regulations would take effect. Plans by Marine Harvest to rapidly expand its operations on the West coast of Scotland are continuing apace and a question remains as to how long such existing operations will have to comply with new regulations. "In our view, regulatory change is urgent," said COAST's Sally Campbell. "The Scottish Government has outlined a number of pressing areas for reform in the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill, but farms already in place before the proposed changes in regulation will no doubt be given lengthy times to comply with new technical standards and statutory obligations. Any regulatory changes sanctioned by a public consultation should be implemented as soon as possible - the marine environment cannot wait for corporate convenience."
