Scotland closes four salmon farms due to sea lice parasite

Health problems facing Shetland, north-eastern coast of Scotland, salmon industry have reared their head again with one company announcing it was vacating four fish farms due to the sea lice parasite.

The news follows the discovery in January of two cases of the fatal disease infectious salmon anaemia (ISA)  on salmon farms off Shetland's west coast, which led the government to set up a control zone in which fish movements were banned.

Mainstream managing director William Young said they had been badly hit by sea lice at Aith Voe, the same problem which has devastated other fish farms in the area.

Hundreds of thousands of fish off the west coast have been killed by sea lice during the past six months, though Young said their main problem was restricted growth.

Meanwhile they are focusing their attention on their other sites off Yell, on Shetland's east coast where there are no sea lice problems at the moment.

The Scottish government has set up an independent inquiry into the Shetland ISA outbreak at farms owned by Scottish Sea Farms and Hjaltland Seafarms in January.

ISA was discovered after government fishery scientists came to Shetland to investigate high levels of sea lice in the area.

Grieg Seafoods, which owns Shetland's biggest salmon producer Hjaltland Seafarms, reported to the Norwegian stock exchange this year that they had lost 2,500 tonnes of salmon, around 600,000 fish, through sea lice in the last three months of 2008, predominantly in Shetland.