Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 October 2017
To ask the Scottish Government whether it would consider making it a statutory offence for fish farmers to release their stock into the wild either deliberately or by failing to secure them properly within the boundaries of the farm.
Fish are not released deliberately from fish farms, with the exception of those businesses who supply put and take fisheries for the provision of sport angling. On occasion circumstances may cause the escape of fish from fish farms. The Scottish Government is not considering making the escape of farmed fish an offence. The Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007 requires that fish farms have satisfactory measures in place to contain fish, prevent escapes and recover escaped fish. In addition the Aquatic Animal Health (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (as amended) require fish farms to immediately notify Scottish Ministers of any escape of farmed fish or of the circumstances which gave rise to a significant risk of an escape of farmed fish and failure to comply with requirements may result in service of an enforcement notice, suspension or revocation of the Authorisation to operate as an Aquaculture Production Business or proceedings for an offence.