Position Statements

SCOTTISH SALMON PRODUCERS' ORGANISATION STATEMENT ON INACTIVE SITES

It is essential that salmon farmers have access to a variety of sites in order to produce high quality salmon in a responsible and competitive way.

Inactive sites are a necessary investment to ensure flexibility to manage fish health and welfare and good environmental management practice. Rotational use of salmon growing sites is often used to ensure the best environmental conditions.

New opportunities such as site optimisation, where appropriate, may also utilise smaller (inactive) sites that, previously, were not commercially viable in their own right. Such a site optimisation programme can bring environmental and economic benefits.

Availability of sites is also vital to attract investment into the industry and to facilitate commercial development for fish farming companies. In this respect, Scotland is no different to other salmon growing regions.

It is also important to recognise that consented tonnage represents a real asset in any financial view of salmon farming companies and as such provides a strong incentive for future investment and development.

Significant investment will have been made in acquiring and retaining these sites however, subject to the health and welfare and environmental measures mentioned previously, the planned release on a commercial basis of some of these sites will continue to be part of the industry’s overall strategy.

It is essential that individual companies keep the retention of such sites under regular review. It is therefore not unhelpful that the combination of the Crown Estates provisions in relation to site inactivity and consequent penalties imposed and also the regular review of undeveloped sites which will be undertaken by individual Local Authorities as the industry becomes fully integrated into the planning system will mean that such reviews will be undertaken as a matter of course.

Of course, sites that remain inappropriate for salmon farming can often be ideal for shellfish farming, which offers a good opportunity for different forms of aquaculture to operate side by side.

The SSPO supports a balance of available sites to support the necessary structures for fish health and welfare, good management practices and commercial development and appropriate measures to assess and act where required.

END

For further information, contact Julie Edgar or Ken Hughes on 01738 587000 or email jedgar@scottishsalmon.co.uk or khughes@scottishsalmon.co.uk.

 

Don't jeopardise health By cutting out salmon - Respected US scientists direct vehement criticism At Flawed Salmon Study As the Food Standards Agency... >> read more January 2004	Science study is seriously misleading on safety of Scottish salmon Research published in Science magazine this week... >> read more January 2004	Healthy Eating Scottish Quality Salmon is a delicious and highly nutritious food containing the essential Omega-3 fatty acids... >> read more
	Food Standards Agency's new advice on oily fish consumption Graph Published by Scottish Quality Salmon >> download 24 June 2004