The welfare status of salmon farms and companies in Scotland Contents 1.Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Our approach ...................................................................................................................................... 1 3. The salmon farm league table ............................................................................................................ 3 4. The salmon farming company league table ........................................................................................ 4 5. Performance on key animal welfare criteria....................................................................................... 5 6. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 10 7. Annex 1: The salmon farm league table ........................................................................................... 10 8. Annex 2: Methodology for assessing the welfare status of Scotland’s salmon farms ..................... 17 9. Annex 3. Methodology for assessing the welfare status of companies ........................................... 18 10. References ...................................................................................................................................... 18 1.Introduction There are serious fish welfare concerns on Scotland’s salmon farms, as detailed in the OneKind report Fish Welfare on Scotland’s Salmon Farms. We believe that these issues need to be urgently addressed so that fish involved in salmon farming live good lives that are free from suffering. To deliver this, a new approach needs to be taken by the industry, which puts high standards of welfare at the front and centre of everything, meeting demands by consumers and the Scottish public. This report aims to encourage this transition by assessing the welfare performance of every salmon farm and every salmon farming company in Scotland relative to each other. The analysis is based entirely on publicly available data, most of which is published via the multi-government agency initiative Scotland’s Aquaculture. Short of visiting and assessing every salmon farm in the country, this is the only objective means by which stakeholders can assess relative welfare performance. We hope that the results of this analysis will act as a reminder to the industry, government, stakeholders, and the public of the importance of fish welfare, and that, alongside other initiatives in this field, it will encourage improvement of fish welfare on salmon farms in Scotland. 2. Our approach OneKind has collated publicly available data on mortalities, escapes, biomass exceedance, seal shooting and sea lice burdens for each salmon farm operating in Scotland in 2017. This data has allowed us to create a “league table” that ranks both farms and companies by their performance, based on these criteria. We intend on updating the league tables and publishing them on an annual basis hereafter. 2.1 The welfare issues considered in the league tables The league tables presented in this report are built on data relating to the following five welfare criteria. They have been selected partly because this is the data that is publicly available but taken together we consider them to be good proxies of the level of suffering and animal welfare issues on individual salmon farms. 2.1.1 Mortality High mortality levels indicate severe welfare problems on salmon farms, as death is rarely instantaneous (Ellis et al. 2012). In 2016, 10 million salmon died on seawater farms in Scotland, and this is estimated to have increased to over 11 million in 2017 (Marine Scotland Science, 2016; Scotland’s Aquaculture, 2017). 2.1.2 Escapes Farmed salmon that escape suffer as they are no longer well adapted to the wild. Many are deaf, have deformed heart shapes and spinal deformities (Reimer et al. 2017, Poppe et al. 2003, Sambraus et al. 2014). This means that once they have escaped, they will struggle to survive. That being said, there is evidence that escaped farmed salmon can compete and interbreed with wild individuals (Karlsson et al. 2016). This compromises the health of wild populations as it leads to the creation of offspring with reduced fitness. 2.1.3 Exceeding biomass limits Biomass limits are set by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and are determined through the use of mathematical modelling. Currently, the maximum biomass that farms are allowed is 2,500 tonnes (estimated 500,000 to 2.5 million fish, depending on their weight1). Exceeding biomass limits compromises the welfare of salmon as it reduces the amount of space available for each fish. This can lead to increased aggression, increased disease spread and reduced water quality (Canon-Jones et al. 2011, Sunberg et al. 2016, Kolarevic et al. 2012). 2.1.4 Seal shooting The control of predators, primarily seals, by lethal means whilst not a fish welfare problem, has been included into our league table due to the significant public concern about seal killing, and the wider animal welfare implications. Whilst the number of seals shot in Scotland has declined as a result of the introduction of licensing under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, it does little to protect the seals that are shot. Research by Nunny et al. (2016) has shown that seals have been shot whilst in the water which increases the time to death, seals have been shot multiple times, and pregnant and lactating mothers have been shot, with implications for dependent young. 2.1.5 Sea lice burdens Sea lice are parasites that feed on the flesh, scales, tissues and muscle of salmon. This creates physical damage, leaving tissues exposed. This causes direct suffering to the salmon, but also creates an entrance for disease, as well as disrupting osmoregulation (water and salt levels) (Thorstad et al. 2015). Research has shown that sea lice can cause high levels of stress, as well as mortality in salmon (Mustafa et al. 2000, Thorstad and Finstad, 2018). There are two trigger levels that relate to sea lice, those set by the Code of Good Practice for Finfish Aquaculture (CoGP), and those set by the Scottish Government. The CoGP sets trigger levels for treatment of an average female lice burden of 0.5 or 1, depending on the time of year. The Scottish Government trigger levels, introduced in 2016, set trigger levels of an average adult female lice burden of three (for the completion of a sea lice “action plan”) and eight (for enforcement action). For our league tables, we counted the number of times that farms exceeded trigger levels of an 1 Lower limit assumes all salmon weigh 5kg, upper limit assumes all salmon weigh 1kg average burden of three adult female lice, as this level has previously been used to identify good and bad performers (Salmon and Trout Conservation Trust, 2018). 3. The salmon farm league table The complete league table with all salmon farms active in 2017 can be found in Annex 1 to this report, with farm locations shown in Figure 1 below. Please note that the lower the score, the higher the welfare standards on the farm. Figure 1. Location of active salmon farms in 2017, showing their rank in the league table Source: Scotland’s Aquaculture website Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right (2018) Our analysis shows that in 2017, 79 (43%) salmon farms in Scotland had no incidents of seal shooting, escapes, average female sea lice burdens of greater than 3, exceedance of biomass and monthly mortality of ≥ 10%. Whilst this does not rule out that these farms may compromise animal welfare in other ways (e.g. cleaner fish welfare) it does suggest that, at least for the criteria we analysed, some salmon farms can be a lot better for animal welfare. From our analysis, six farms stood out as having the most welfare issues (Table 1, Figure 1). Of these six, Poll na Gille, operated by Marine Harvest, was ranked to be poorest for animal welfare in 2017 (Table 1). Table 1. The top 6 worst performing salmon farms for animal welfare in 2017 Rank Farm Company Mortality score 1 Poll na Gille Marine Harvest 0 2 MacLean’s Nose Marine Harvest = Bagh dail nan Cean = Vuia Beag 3 Inch Kenneth = = Escape score Biomass score Seal score Sea Lice score Welfare score 3 3 3 2 11 3 3 0 3 0 9 Marine Harvest 0 0 3 3 3 9 The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company 3 3 0 3 0 9 3 0 0 3 2 8 Badcall Bay Loch Duart Ltd. 3 0 0 3 2 8 Loch Carnan Loch Duart Ltd. 3 0 0 3 2 8 We also looked into the geographic distribution of farms in Scotland, analysing welfare performance by local authority area (purely for clarity of geographic categorisation-local authorities do not inspect or monitor salmon farms). From this we found that on average, salmon farms located in the Highlands and Eilean Siar were worse for animal welfare (Table 2). Table 2. Local authority areas ranked by their animal welfare score Local authority Highland Eilean Siar Argyll and Bute Shetland Orkney North Ayrshire Number of farms 49 33 37 43 22 1 Average welfare score 2.63 2.63 2.46 2.19 0.55 0 4. The salmon farming company league table The table below shows how the eight salmon farming companies in Scotland compared on welfare performance. To account for the varying sizes of companies, we calculated an average welfare score per fish farm (see Annex 2 for further information). The variation between companies is significant and does not appear to be linked to the overall size of the company. Indeed, the company with the worst average animal welfare score in 2017 was Loch Duart Ltd., a small company, and Cooke Aquaculture, a large company, was amongst the top performers. Of the four large salmon farming companies in Scotland, Marine Harvest scored the worst for animal welfare in 2017. Table 3. Average welfare score of salmon farming companies, in 2017, ranked from best to worst performing Rank Company 1 (Best) Wester Ross Fisheries 2 Number of salmon farms 2017 Number of escapes 3 Number of times monthly mortality was ≥ 10% 0 Number of seals shot 0 Number of times biomass limits were exceeded 0 0 Number of sea lice trigger level breaches 0 Cooke Aquaculture 33 3 Scottish Sea Farms 4 Average welfare score 9 0 0 1 30 1.3 42 12 2 0 12 91 1.6 Kames Fish Farming 1 0 0 0 0 2 2.0 5 Grieg Seafood Shetland 18 3 1 0 1 193 2.3 6 The Scottish Salmon Company 41 23 2 0 7 133 2.5 7 Marine Harvest 37 11 8 11 13 64 3.1 8(Worst) Loch Duart Ltd. 10 10 0 0 10 39 4.0 Wester Ross Fisheries is by far the standout company in 2017 for animal welfare. Across all three sites operating in 2017, there were no incidents of escapes, high sea lice levels, seal shooting, incidents of exceeding biomass limits or monthly mortality rates of ≥ 10%. Of the five larger companies, Cooke Aquaculture stands out as, on average, having sites that are better for animal welfare, with an average welfare score of 1.4 (Table 3). 5. Performance on key animal welfare criteria 5.1 Mortality At a farm level Total mortality in 2017 is estimated to be over 11 million individual salmon. There were 68 incidents of monthly mortality rates of ≥ 10% of biomass on site. The farm that documented the most incidents of monthly mortality of ≥ 10% in 2017 was Bagh Clann Neill (Grimsay), operated by The Scottish Salmon Company, with 6 months having mortality that was ≥ 10% biomass on site. This is closely followed by MacLean’s Nose, operated by Marine Harvest, with 5 months of mortality of ≥10% (Figure 2). 0.0 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Bagh Clann Neill (Grimsay) MacLeans Nose Calbha Site 5 (Calbha Beag) Badcall Site 10 (North Eilean na Bearachd) Kishorn Outer, Offshore of Airigh-drishaig Tuath (Rubha na Gall) Kempie Bay Inch Kenneth Allt a Chois (Kishorn North Shore) Stead of Aithness Meall Mhor Camas Doun Point (Kishorn Site 2) North Havra Druimyeon Bay Strone Point Erisort, North Shore West Vuia Mor Gravir Outer Kirk Noust Carness Bay South Ford East (Gashernish East) Winna Ness Colonsay Bay of Vady Bastaness Vuia Beag Dubh Sgeir (Lismore North) Snarraness Voe Erisort, North Shore East Calbha Site 6 (East Rubh a Mhucard) North Voe Tabhaigh Port na Cro Uiskevagh North Reintraid Cloudin Sandavaig (South Ford) Aird Ardheslaig Sian Bay Number of times monthly mortality was ewual to or greater than 10% 7 Salmon farm Figure 2. Salmon farms with the greatest number of instances of monthly mortality of ≥ 10% of biomass on site At a company level Of the 68 incidents of monthly mortality of ≥ 10% of biomass, The Scottish Salmon Company had the largest proportion of these by far (34%) (Table 9). Accounting for size variation, farms operated by Loch Duart Ltd. had the greatest number of months with mortality rates of ≥ 10% (Table 9) Table 4. Number of times monthly mortality was greater than or equal to 10% of biomass by company in 2017 Company The Scottish Salmon Company Ltd Number of times monthly mortality was ≥ 10% 23 Average/ farm 0.53 Scottish Sea Farms Ltd 12 0.3 Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd 11 0.31 Loch Duart Ltd 10 1 Cooke Aquaculture Scotland 9 0.29 Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd 3 0.09 Wester Ross Fisheries 0 0 5.2 Escapes At the farm level There were 14 escape events involving 30,948 fish (salmon and cleaner fish), in 2017, from 12 salmon farms. This means that most farms (94%) did not report escapes. Of those that did report escapes, most (86%) only had one escape event, but two sites- Poll na Gille and Bloody Bayreported two escape events. At the company level Of 14 escape events in 2017, Marine Harvest was responsible for most (57%) of these, with 8 escape events (Table 6). Table 5. The number of fish escape events by salmon farming company, in 2017 *Sunbeam Aquaculture Ltd. is not included in the overall league table as mortality data is not available for this company. Company Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd The Scottish Salmon Company Scottish Sea Farms Ltd Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd Sunbeam Aquaculture Ltd* Number of escape events 2017 8 2 2 1 1 5.3 Exceeding biomass limits At the farm level Only two sites exceeded biomass limits in 2017: Poll na Gille and Bagh Dail nan Ceann, both operated by Marine Harvest. Poll na Gille breached biomass limits 6 times in 2017, sometimes by up to 50%. Bagh Dail nan Ceann breached biomass limits 5 times, with the largest amount exceeded being 18% more biomass than licensed on site, in October. At the company level Marine Harvest was the only company that operated sites that breached biomass limits in 2017. Overall, two sites operated by Marine Harvest exceeded biomass limits 11 times 5.4 Seal shooting At the farm level Twenty- six salmon farms shot at least one seal in 2017, totalling 49 seals shot. The farm that shot the most seals was Loch Carnan, operated by Loch Duart Ltd., which shot 9 seals. As well as this farm, 6 others shot more than one seal in 2017 (Table 4). Table 6. Sites that shot the most seals in 2017 Farm Company Seals shot Total Common Grey Loch Carnan Loch Duart Ltd. 2 7 9 Vuia Beag The Scottish Salmon Company 0 6 6 Dury Voe Scottish Sea Farms 0 4 4 Bloody Bay Scottish Sea Farms 3 0 3 Slocka Ronas Voe Scottish Sea Farms 0 2 2 Greshornish Marine Harvest 0 2 2 Loch A Chairn Bhain Loch Duart Ltd. 2 0 2 At a company level Marine Harvest shot the most (27%) seals in 2017, shooting 13 seals, though this is closely followed by Scottish Sea Farms which shot 12 seals (Table 5). However, when accounting for size variation of companies, Loch Duart Ltd. shot the most seals for its size (Table 5). Table 7. The number of seals shot by salmon farming company, in 2017 Company Number of seals shot Marine Harvest 10 3 13 Average number of seals shot/ farm 0.36 Scottish Sea Farms 7 5 12 0.3 Loch Duart Ltd. 8 2 10 1 The Scottish Salmon Company 6 1 7 0.16 Grieg Seafood 1 0 1 0.06 Cooke Aquaculture 1 0 1 0.03 Wester Ross Fisheries 0 0 0 0 Grey Total Common Kames Fish Farming 0 0 0 0 5.5 Sea lice burdens At the farm level 77 sites breached sea lice trigger levels of an average female lice count of more than 3, in 2017. The farm that breached trigger levels the most was Score Holms, which breached trigger levels 28 times in 2017 (Table 7). Table 8. Sites that breached trigger levels the most in 2017 Farm Company Score Holms Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd. Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd. Greig Seafood Shetland Ltd. Scottish Sea Farms Ltd. Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd. Loch Duart Ltd. Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd. Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd. Scottish Sea Farms Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd. Spoose Holm North Papa Dury Voe North Havra Loch Laxford Langa Isle (East) Gob na Hoe Sian Bay West of Burwick Number of times trigger levels (> 3 average female sea lice) were breached in 2017 28 25 22 20 20 20 19 18 18 17 At the company level Farms operated by Grieg Seafood breached sea lice trigger levels of an average female lice count of 3 the most in 2017, compared to other companies, with farms owned by Grieg Seafood breaching trigger levels for a total number of 193 times in 2017 (Table 8). Table 9. The number of times salmon farming companies exceeded sea lice trigger levels in 2017 Company Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd The Scottish Salmon Company Scottish Sea Farms Ltd Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd Loch Duart Ltd Total number of times average sea lice burdens were >3 adult female 193 135 91 64 39 Average number of breaches/ farm 10.7 3.1 2.3 1.8 3.9 Cooke Aquaculture Scotland Ltd Kames Fish Farming Ltd Wester Ross Fisheries 30 2 0 0.9 2 0 6. Conclusions This is the first time that the animal welfare performance of Scotland’s salmon farms and salmon farming companies has been ranked. We hope to further refine our approach in future years with feedback from stakeholders and the industry and as more data is made publicly available. From our initial analysis key observations include: • • There is significant range in performance, with the best farms and the best companies clearly experiencing lower mortality, disease and sea lice infestation rates. Some companies and many salmon farms killed no seals at all in 2017, questioning the need for others to continue with this practice. This project aimed to compile league tables and in doing so to understand the range in performance between farms and companies. As part of the next stage, we hope to build an understanding of the reasons behind this variation, and to identify what can be learnt from the best and worst performers. 7. Annex 1: The salmon farm league table Site Company Poll na Gille MacLeans Nose Bagh dail nan Cean Vuiabeag Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest The Scottish Salmon Company Loch Duart Loch Duart The Scottish Salmon Company Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Grieg Loch Duart Loch Duart Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Scottish Sea Farms Badcall Bay Loch Carnan Inch Kenneth Bastaness Cloudin North Havra Calva Bay Loch a Chairn Bhain Colonsay Eilean Grianain Cairidh Sian Bay Mortality Escape Biomass Seal Sea score Score score Score lice Score 0 3 3 3 2 3 3 0 3 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 Total welfare score 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 2 2 2 8 8 8 3 0 0 0 3 6 3 0 0 0 3 6 3 3 3 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 3 3 0 3 0 0 0 3 3 3 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 11 9 9 9 Dury Voe (North Nesting Site 2) Teisti Geo Bloody bay Bagh Chlann Neil Gravir Outer North Uiskevagh Tabhaigh Port na Cro Loch Alsh (Sron) North Shore Maol Ban Camas Glas Kishorn West (Outer) Kishorn B (Allt a Chois) Kempie bay Kishorn A Snaraness Voe Meall Mhor Aird Geasgill Kirk Noust Stead of Aithness Bay of Vady Carness Bay Winna Ness Vee Taing Uyea Isle West Fara Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture 0 0 0 3 3 6 0 0 0 3 3 6 0 3 0 3 0 6 3 0 0 0 3 6 3 0 0 0 3 6 3 0 0 0 3 6 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 0 0 0 2 5 3 0 0 0 2 5 3 0 0 0 2 5 3 0 0 0 2 5 3 0 0 0 2 5 3 0 0 0 2 5 0 3 0 0 2 5 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 3 0 3 North Voe Score Holms Spoose Holm North Papa Langa Isle (East) Gob na Hoe West of Burwick Leinish Corlarach East of Papa Cole Deep Setterness North (Bomlo) Loch Laxford Clashnessie bay/ Oldany Outer Bay (Loch Droighniche) Lochmaddy (Loch Portain and ferramus) Hellisay Soay Sound Greshornish Scotasay Isle Ewe Sconser Ardnish Creag an T'Sagairt Invasion Bay Lismore North Loura Voe Holms Geo Foreholm Slocka Ronas Voe Loch Spelve Druimyeon Bay Strone Point Tuath (Rubha na Gall) Vuia Mor Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Loch Duart Loch Duart Loch Duart 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 Loch Duart 0 0 0 3 0 3 Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 Reibinish Ardcastle Greanamul Strome Kilerivagh (Petersport) Plocrapol Scadabay Quarry Point Gob a Bharra Sgeir Dughall Turness Djuba Wick Wick of Belmont Shuna SW (Rubha an Trilleachain) Caolas a Deas Groatay Stulaigh Linnhe Ornish Island (Skipport Outer) Kingairloch South Sound, Mangaster Voe Trilleachan Mor East Tarbert Bay Gometra Maragay Mor Kenmore Bay Balta Island The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Kames Fish Farming Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Marine Harvest Scottish Sea Farms The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company Cooke Aquaculture 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Basta Voe North West (Kirkabister) Bay of Cleat Bay of Meil Bow of Hascosay Burrastow Cava South Chalmers hope Flaeshins Lyrawa Bay Ness of Copister North Sandwick Ouse ness Pegal bay Point of Burkwell (Site 5) Quanterness Vest ness Wick of Vatsetter Bay of Cleat North Bay of Ham East of Langa Linga (South of Linga) Ru Chorachan Swining Voe Site 3 (collafirth ness) Taing of Railsborough Drumbeg Sound of Harris Seaforth Am Maol, Isle of Muck Ardintoul Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Grieg Grieg Grieg Grieg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Grieg Loch Duart Loch Duart Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Callert (Leven) Camas an Leim (Torridon) Duich Grey Horse Channel Marulaig Bay Noster Gorsten Nevis B (Stoull) Vidlin North Tanera Achnacroish (Walters, Lismore East) Nevis C (Ardintigh) Bellister Bring Head Charlottes Bay (Kerrara B) Creran B Dunstaffnage Earnsaig (Nevis A) Eday Sound (Noust Geo) Eilean Fada Mor Fishnish A Fishnish B Fiunary Lismore West (port nan ledaig) Puldrite bay Scallastle bay Shuna Toyness Marine Harvest Marine Harvest 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Marine Harvest Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Veantrow bay Westerbister Wyre (Gairsay) Creran A Strondoir Bay Ardgaddan Ardyne (baigh au Sgairbh) Eilean Treanay Eport Outer (Sgeir n Lolla) Glenan Bay Kyles Vuia East Loch Portree (Torvaig) Rubha Stillaig Sgian Dubh St Molios Taranaish Tarbert South Vacasay, Roag Ardessie A Ardmair (Isle Martin) Corry, Loch Broom Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms Scottish Sea Farms The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company The Scottish Salmon Company Wester Ross Fisheries Wester Ross Fisheries Wester Ross Fisheries 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8. Annex 2: Methodology for assessing the welfare status of Scotland’s salmon farms We looked at publicly available data relating to fish welfare on salmon farms in Scotland for 2017. A league table was produced for each of the five criteria, and to develop a consolidated league table we assigned each fish farm a score for each criterion. Mortalities: We calculated monthly mortality (%) using site mortality (Kg) and monthly biomass (the maximum tonnage of fish held on site during the month) data published on the Scottish Aquaculture website. The number of times that sites had a monthly mortality of ≥10% of biomass on site was recorded, and this was used in the league table. Some sites have multiple areas licensed within them, and therefore have multiple biomass and mortality reports, which were added together to provide one mortality figure, and one biomass figure. The following salmon farms are structured in this way: • • • • • • • • • • • • • Loch Carnan, comprises of: South Ford (Gashernish), Sandavaig (South Ford) and South Ford East (Gashernish East) Badcall Bay, comprises of sites 9,10,11 and 12 Eilean Grianain includes Carradale North and South Loch a Chairn Bhain includes Torgawn and Reintraid Lochmaddy includes Caolas Loch Portain and Ferramus Loch Laxford, includes sites 1,2, 3 and 4 North shore includes Erisort West and Erisort East Tanera includes Tanera 1 and Tanera 2 Caolas a Deas includes Caolas a Deas West and East Vidlin North includes Vidlin North and Vidlin Outer Kishorn A includes Achintraid (Kishorn Site 1) and Camas Doun Point (Kishorn Site 2) Calva Bay (Calbha Beag) includes Calbha sites 5,6,7,8 Lismore North includes Port na Moralachd (Lismore A) and Dubh Sgeir (Lismore North) Escapes: Data on escapes was obtained from the Scottish Aquaculture website which includes escapes of both salmon and cleaner fish and provides the cause of the escape. Biomass: The number of times biomass limits were exceeded was obtained from the Scottish Aquaculture website. This data refers only to farmed fish biomass and does not include cleaner fish weight. Seal Shooting: Data on the number of seals shot on salmon farms was obtained from the Seal Licensing page on the Scottish Government website. Sea lice: Sea lice data for 2018 is now published by the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation. Any data on sea lice prior to this point is only available from published FOI’s (with week 46 missing) which we used to create our league table. This information provides us with the number of times that each site exceeded the Scottish Government’s trigger level of an average sea lice burden of 3 adult female sea lice per fish, on a weekly basis. Developing the consolidated league table To develop a consolidated league table, we scored each fish farm for each of the five welfare criteria. This was done by scoring farms based on their position within the distribution of values (Table 10). Each farm was assigned a score for each category, with a score between 0 and 3, with 3 indicating poorer welfare. As there are five categories within the league table, the maximum welfare score a farm could achieve is 15, with higher scores indicating poorer welfare. Table 10. How percentile values correspond to league table ranks Percentile Score < 0.25 0 0.25 < 0.5 1 0.5 < 0.75 2 > 0.75 3 9. Annex 3. Methodology for assessing the welfare status of companies As well as completing a league table for individual farms, we also created 2017 and 2013-2017 league tables for companies. This was done by finding the average welfare score of farms operated by different companies. To do this we totalled up scores for each salmon farm within a company, using the methodology outlined in Appendix 1. 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