Scottish salmon sold at a range of supermarkets in the UK including Tesco, Co-op and Sainsbury’s, has up to 20 times the acceptable amount of sea lice according to the Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland.
In data obtained by the conservation group, it was discovered that there was an average of three lice found in each farmed fish. This is three times the maximum number of lice expected.
Andrew Graham- Stewart, Director of S&TC Scotland said that many of the individual farms’ sea lice numbers were “far worse” than the S&TC envisaged.
He said: “Sea lice numbers on farmed fish across much of the industry are of epidemic proportions.”
Co-op’s salmon supplier was one of the worst effected, with 6 out of its 10 farms exceeding acceptable lice levels.
Sainsbury’s supplier, Marine Harvest and Tesco supplier, Grieg Seafood Shetland, were also on the list. Grieg Seafood was found to have salmon with an average of 22 lice.
Fortunately, lice infected fish pose no risk to humans as they are either treated with pesticides or discarded.
Guy Linley-Adams, Solicitor to S&TC Scotland, accused the Scottish government of failing in its legal duty to “protect and conserve wild salmon and sea trout.”
He said: “The data that Scottish Government didn’t want anyone to see shows that salmon farms have been permitted to operate with breathtakingly high lice numbers for weeks or months on end.”
The S&TC Scotland have called upon Scottish government ministers to “top trying to protect salmon farmers from legitimate criticism.”
It has also urged the salmon farming industry to “end both its tobacco-industry style denials about the damage it causes and the ‘tit for tat’ accusations it repeatedly makes, in favour of embracing the positive change that must now come."
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