Meeting of the Parliament 20 March 2025 [Draft]
I accept that there need to be adaptable controls in particular areas. The Kishorn A, B and C sites continually have a high mortality rate, which calls into question whether the approach is appropriate.
The Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee demanded that mortality should be reduced—it was clear about that in its recommendations. When I attended that committee—I attended nearly every single session—we heard from the industry that it was predicting a reduction in mortality in fish farms of only 2 per cent each year.
The figure that has been quoted today was based on the mortality rate in 2018. Let us go back to 2017, when the mortality rate was 17 per cent. If we are to get back to that rate of 17 per cent but the industry is only going to reduce mortality by 2 per cent a year, that means that we will have to wait 19 years to get back to a mortality rate that was judged by the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee to be unacceptable.
The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee’s recommendations are commendable. I like the idea of a road map—I am disappointed that we never had one before for the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee’s 65 recommendations. I am pleased that the data on fish mortality is to be much more open and consistent, and that there is more concern about waste discharge. Across all these committees and all these reports, what we are trying to achieve is for the industry to be a good neighbour—not just for wild salmon but for the other industries that work around their pens.
For the industry to succeed—and I really want it to succeed—it will have to be much more open and transparent than it is at the moment. It will have to show considerable improvements.
I caution the industry against sending letters such as the one that it sent to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee after the committee published its report. I believe that such letters are threatening. I do not like being threatened by the industry and I do not think that any parliamentary committee should be threatened. We need to make sure that we build on the report through consensus.
Denial and defence by threatening are not going to save the industry. I believe that the industry is in the last-chance saloon. It has had two strikes from two separate committees in the Parliament. I hope that the industry will succeed, but it will have to do a lot more than it is doing at the moment if it is to remain as it is.
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