January 18, 2021

More than 52,000 salmon escape, die after seal attack on Scottish farm

A serious attacks by seals have led to the death or escape of more than 52,000 fish at a salmon farm in Scotland, Independent reported on January 17.

The incident, which took place on New Year's Eve, saw seals rip open nets and kill "many" juvenile fish, industry figures have since revealed – adding to the hundreds of thousands of salmon killed by seals in Scotland last year. This most recent attack occurred at a Skye-based farm, managed by the Scottish Salmon Company (SSC), which was due to have new anti-predator netting technology installed by the end of January.

The SSC said it was now working with the local fisheries trust to recapture stock where possible, describing the event as "extremely disappointing". 

"Our Portree site has recently been subject to persistent attacks from a large group of seals which, despite our best efforts, caused significant damage to one of our nets," said a spokesman for the company."

"Our staff moved quickly to repair this damage but, unfortunately, a number of fish escaped.

The Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) said predation attacks continued to have a significant impact on fish health and welfare. The company said recent legislation had reduced the methods available to fish farmers to manage predation including a ban on the use of "lethal controls" by farmers, a change which will come into effect in full at the end of January 2021.

Around 530,000 Scottish farmed salmon, worth around £13 million (US$17.6 million), died due to seal attacks between May 2019 and May 2020 – either from incurring an attack or "indirectly from stress", according to the SSPO.

The company said it would continue to urge the Scottish government to allow its salmon farmers to have "full access to all available effective non-lethal measures if they are to fulfil their statutory duty to protect their fish".

- Independent