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sundayherald
Salmon health scare 'gag'
January 7th 2001
Government scientists worried that the fish farming industry is wrecking populations of wild salmon and trout are being gagged by the Scottish Executive, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
Biologists from the fisheries research laboratory near Pitlochry are being prevented from expressing their view that sea lice spreading from salmon cages are the main cause of the collapse in wild fish stocks.
Although this is accepted by many independent experts and the Norwegian government, it is rejected by the Executive.
Ron Greer, a scientist who used to work at the Pitlochry lab has described how his colleagues fear for their jobs in a "climate of fear". Insiders have confirmed they are "encouraged to be shrinking violets on anything remotely political".
The revelation has angered environmentalists, who draw comparisons with the BSE disaster. "The silencing of civil servants supposed to be safeguarding wild salmon and the environment is deeply disturbing," said Kevin Dunion, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
"The lesson of the BSE debacle is that government should be open and accountable. Yet employees of some government departments are still afraid to speak out and tell the truth."
The evidence obtained by the Sunday Herald is supported by allegations in a BBC2 television documentary, Warnings From The Wild: The Price Of Salmon, due to be screened tonight. Pre-publicity for another problem highlighted by the programme, which is very critical of the fish farming industry, yesterday sparked a furious political row.
The documentary quotes evidence from two scientists on the high levels of toxic pollutants like PCBs and dioxins in farmed salmon. Unfortunately their findings were muddled in a story last week on the BBC News Online website - an error pounced on by politicians anxious to defend an important Scottish industry.
Scotland Office minister, Brian Wilson, accused the BBC of engaging in "wildly inaccurate" hype. "It is crass irresponsibility to smear a whole industry in this way without having impeccable scientific evidence to back up such claims," he said.
The widespread media coverage given last week to the presence of toxins in fish - something which has been public knowledge for years - caused a 15% dive in the value of shares in Nutreco, the giant Dutch food company that owns many of Scotland's fish farms. In an attempt to limit the damage the industry organisation, Scottish Quality Salmon (SQS), put out a statement on Friday evening claiming that support was "pouring in" from the four main political parties.
The Scottish Conservative leader David McLetchie, the party's fisheries spokesman Jamie McGrigor, Highland Labour MSP Maureen Macmillan, Liberal Democrat convenor George Lyon and SNP shadow deputy minister for rural affairs Richard Lochhead were all quoted criticising the BBC. SQS's chairman, Lord Lindsay, was Scotland's environment minister under the last Conservative government.
Such a concerted attack prompted a tough response from the producer of the BBC documentary, Jeremy Bristow. "We have taken great pains to ensure that it is neither inaccurate or irresponsible," he said.
As well as covering food safety and the environment, the programme shows an official from the Scottish Executive's Fisheries Research Services intervening to stop an interview with a scientist. Bristow said the tactics used were similar to those adopted by government minders in Libya, Iran and Iraq.
He said he was told by one fisheries scientist that it was a "sheer farce" to pretend fish farms were not involved in the 80% drop in wild salmon catches on the north west coast over the last five years.
"They are leaning on me to say nothing," the scientist said.
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