Wild Fish Interests
Collaboration with wild fish interests and the Scottish Government is maintained through forum such as the Tripartite Working Group (www.tripartiteworkinggroup.com) to ensure continuing improvement and to promote better and more productive working relationships in the interests of long-term sustainable salmon farming and wild fisheries.
The salmon farming industry also collaborates with wild fish interests and the Scottish Government in the Ministerial Working Group on Aquaculture which oversees the progress of the Strategic Framework for Scottish Aquaculture.
Table 1 - Confirmed breaches of containment, 1st January-31st May 2009
The table provides details of breaches of containment where salmon are known to have escaped from SSPO member companies only.
Site name |
Company name |
Date of incident |
Water type |
Number of fish lost |
Reasons for loss |
Aird |
Lighthouse Caledonia |
17th May 2009 |
Seawater |
17,766 |
Guidance notes to Table 1
1. Table 1 refers to members of Scottish Salmon Producers' Organisation (SSPO) only.
2. SSPO represents some 95% of the tonnage of Scottish farmed salmon production. A pre-requisite of membership to SSPO is compliance with the Code of Good Practice for Finfish Aquaculture.
3. Effective containment is a priority for SSPO member companies. All breaches of containment represent a significant commercial loss for the business.
What percentage of farmed salmon in Scottish waters did breaches of containment in 2007 represent?
The overwhelming majority of the circa 250 salmon sites in operation have an excellent record of containment of fish. The industry’s performance on breaches of containment in 2008 represents the lowest number of lost fish since statutory reporting began in 2002.
As over 70million smolts (young fish) were put to sea at various times during the last two years, breaches of containment where fish were known to have escaped during 2008 corresponded to approximately 0.1% of the total amount of farmed salmon in Scottish waters during this period.
Position statement on the containment of fish Scottish Salmon Producers' Organisation >> link |
Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Aquaculture (CoGP) CoGP Working Group |
Review and Synthesis of the Environmental Impacts of Aquaculture Scottish Association for Marine Science and Napier University in association with Scottish Executive >> link 2002 |