Chamber and committees

(a) Marine Scotland’s fish health inspectorate monitors sea lice on fish farms through a programme of sea lice inspections and enhanced sea lice inspections. A basic sea lice inspection is conducted whenever aquaculture facilities in seawater are visited, an enhanced inspection is completed in cases where elevated lice numbers have been observed, reported or the site is considered to be at greater risk of elevated sea lice numbers. The number of inspections carried out is noted in the following table:

(b) The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for the regulation and monitoring of pollution in the environment arising from fish farming and other sectors. Marine cage fish farms are subject to a system of inspections to determine compliance with conditions in licences issued under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011. These conditions are imposed in order to ensure the protection of the environment. Such inspections are ordinarily undertaken on two occasions per year in connection with each authorised marine cage fish farm site and will typically involve an inspection of the cage site and/or potentially any associated shore base plus an inspection of records held at the operating company offices.

In addition to these inspections, marine cage fish farm sites are subject to formal monitoring requirements with operators being required to undertake monitoring of the seabed to show the seabed conditions at each farm being during each growth cycle. A salmon growth cycle lasts around 20 to 22 months and the monitoring must be undertaken when the level of stock in the site is at or close to the maximum permitted – normally in the second year of the growth cycle. The monitoring work is typically undertaken by consultants employed by the fish farm operating company with the results being reported to SEPA. SEPA assesses each survey and classifies the quality of seabed conditions based on compliance with published standards.

In addition to these self-monitoring surveys commissioned by farm operators, SEPA carries out audit work related to seabed monitoring on a small number of sites, perhaps 5 to15 sites annually. Some of these surveys involve SEPA taking samples and analysing these or using other techniques such as accompanying the fish farmer and their consultants to assess the veracity of their survey and sampling methodology.

(c) Inspections of farms producing fish for human consumption are carried out by local authorities according to the Food Law Code of Practice (Scotland) under the food establishment rating scheme which determines inspection frequency based on risk.

(d) There are no inspections made of the effect of fish farming on wild salmon in Scotland. Marine and freshwater fish farms are authorised by local authorities under the Town and Country Planning Act 1997. Prior to determining an application, the local authority conduct a detailed assessment of the potential impacts of the proposal on the environment, including wild salmonids, and will seek advice from statutory consultees (including SEPA, Scottish Natural Heritage and the local district salmon fishery board). The Scottish Government is also working with Scotland’s salmon farming industry and representatives of the wild salmon sector on a strategic programme of further research that includes a study to explore any impacts of sea lice from fish farming in Scotland.