A salmon farming company has been reprimanded for feeding a toxic pesticide to fish twice as often as permitted and breaching a safety limit, according to documents released by the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) has been accused by government watchdogs of breaking the rules governing the use of emamectin, a chemical fed to farmed salmon to kill the sea lice that can plague them.
The breach was discovered at a salmon farm in Loch Roag on the island of Lewis in February by Scottish Government inspectors. Subsequent investigations by three Scottish and UK government regulators led to SSC being issued an advisory letter in May.
Campaigners, however, have attacked regulators for failing to take tougher action and essentially turning a blind eye to flagrant breaches. They have highlighted the poor environmental record of salmon farms in Loch Roag, and called on SSC to close down its five sites there.
SSC, which was bought by the Faroese fish farming firm Bakkafrost in 2019, described the breach as marginal and an isolated incident. It said that it was investing heavily to cut the use of pesticides.
Emamectin, marketed as Slice, is discharged from fish farms into sea lochs where studies have shown it harms crabs, lobsters and other crustaceans. The Ferret has reported how attempts by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) to introduce a ban have been repeatedly fought off by the salmon farming industry.
Instead, Sepa introduced tougher restrictions on emamectin use by new or expanding farms in October 2017. But these were relaxed in April 2020 in order to help the farms cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Documents obtained by campaigners under freedom of information law revealed that a salmon sample from SSC’s Kyles of Vuia farm in Loch Roag exceeded the maximum residue limit for emamectin. The sample was taken on 26 February 2020.
This prompted a three-month investigation involving two Scottish Government agencies, Marine Scotland Science and Food Standards Scotland, and the UK government’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
On 5 May 2020 Marine Scotland Science wrote to SSC saying that an inspection of the treatment records showed that salmon had been fed emamectin more frequently than permitted. There had been six treatments in a year, when the maximum allowed was three.
This was possibly a contributing factor for the non-compliant sample, Marine Scotland Science said. It referred the case to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate enforcement team to determine if any further action is appropriate.
The directorate then told SSC on 13 May that emamectin had not been administered in accordance with the marketing authorisation and that this was a breach of the veterinary medicines regulations.
But it added: We have decided on the basis of the information held at present not to take further action on this occasion.
Food Standards Scotland concluded that the breach was not sufficient to declare a food safety incident. The sampled fish was not harvested, and so did not go to supermarkets to be sold to consumers.
Environmental groups pointed out that emamectin breaches had been detected before, including at two of SSC’s other fish farms in Loch Roag in 2016. They said that in June 2018 the Kyles of Vuia farm had record-breaking numbers of sea lice, averaging 24 adult female lice per fish.
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