Skyfall for Scottish Salmon! - Chlamydia & Gill Diseases Go Viral in Scotland
by Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, 6 November 2012
Isle of Mull, Scotland – A dossier of data obtained via Freedom of Information reveals that Scottish salmon farming is being ravaged by infectious diseases led by the parasitic killers Amoebic Gill Disease, Proliferative Gill Inflammation and Chlamydia: ‘Scottish Salmon’s Dirty Big Secret’. Now a former public relations director of the salmon farming company first affected by gill diseases has blown the whistle stating that she was “not prepared to lie to journalists about the extent of the mortalities” [1].
The Scottish salmon farming industry – which is over 65% owned by Norwegian companies and Norwegian banks - is now paying a hefty price. The Scottish Salmon Company, Marine Harvest and Scottish Sea Farms are suffering mass mortalities of up to 70%. Marine Harvest and the Scottish Salmon Company – both listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange – reported significant losses to shareholders and investors in their financial reports. Marine Harvest, Scotland’s and the world’s largest salmon farming company, predicted further losses in Q4 2012 as gill diseases eat into profits [2].
“The sky is falling on the Scottish salmon farming industry,” said Don Staniford of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) who is visiting salmon farms on the Isle of Skye later this week (7-9 November). “Scottish salmon is farmed and diseased. Lamlash Bay on the Isle of Arran is ‘ground zero’ with reports of infectious gill diseases since 2007. Since then Amoebic Gill Disease has spread like a malignant cancer along the coast of Scotland from Argyll to Orkney and from Skye to the Western Isles.”
“There were these photographs of bins full of stinking dead salmon with maggots all over them,” said Alison Prince, editor of the Voice for Arran (formerly Arran Voice), in an interview (3 November) in front of the Scottish Salmon Company’s site in Lamlash Bay. “We published them in the Arran Voice which caused a bit of a stushie.”
“But we never got any satisfaction out of the company about what happened,” continued Prince who is a screenwriter and author including the children’s cult classic 'Trumpton'. “We tried our very best to find out what the disease and what was going on but there was dead silence about it. So it’s a bit of a mystery really.”
Photo: Alison Prince, editor of Voice for Arran and author of 'Trumpton', with Don Staniford
Listen to the interview in full online here“I find it impossible to believe that this is not the same disease which killed a large number of fish at Pan Fish’s Arran site a number of years ago (and indeed was the cause of my parting company with them, as I was not prepared to lie to journalists like Nick Underdown about the extent of the mortalities),” wrote Fiona Cameron (a PR consultant and former spokesperson for Pan Fish and Lighthouse Caledonia at the time of the 2007-2008 disease outbreak at the Lamlash Bay site) following an article on AGD in The Daily Mail (14 October 2012). “Not sure why they’re saying it’s a new phenomenon. I guess they don’t want to frighten the horses (a.k.a. the shareholders!).”
Official data from the Scottish Government reveals that Amoebic Gill Disease was first reported at Lamlash Bay in October 2011 killing 279,000 farmed salmon. By April 2012 the deadly disease had spread to 15 sites including Loch Roag in the Western Isles, the Firth of Lorne, Seil Sound, the Sound of Mull, Loch Kishorn, the Isle of Gigha and the Orkney Isles [3]. GAAIA has now filed a FOI with Marine Scotland requesting disease data from April to November 2012.
Read more via ‘Gill Diseases: Scottish Salmon’s Dirty Big Secret’
For more details on GAAIA’s tour of Scotland including an itinerary please visit Flying the Flag for Wild Salmon in Scotland & Ireland
Watch video reports on our visit to Scotland:
“Unnecessary Seal Deaths – Mark Carter Explains” (GAAIA, 6 November)
“Salmon Farming Kills Seals!” (GAAIA, 5 November)
“The Stench of Scottish Salmon Farming” (GAAIA, 4 November)
“Salmon Farm Disease Disaster in Lamlash Bay, Arran” (GAAIA, 3 November)
“GAAIA goes to Scotland’s diseased fish farms on Arran” (GAAIA, 3 November)
“Norwegian Fish Farms Get Out! Flying the flag for wild salmon” (GAAIA, 1 November)
Contact:
Don Staniford: +44 7771 541826 and dstaniford@gaaia.org
www.gaaia.org and www.salmonfarmingkills.com
Notes to Editors:
[1] Following an article on Amoebic Gill Disease in The Daily Mail (14 October 2012), Fiona Cameron (a PR consultant and former spokesperson for Pan Fish and Lighthouse Caledonia at the time of the 2007-2008 disease outbreak at the Lamlash Bay site) emailed GAAIA and the Salmon & Trout Association:
The Scottish Salmon Company – which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and whose shareholders include a who’s who of Norwegian banks - disclosed to investors via their Q2 2012 financial report in August 2012:
[3] Reported cases of AGD (October 2011 to April 2012) as detailed by Marine Scotland in September 2012 via a Freedom of Information request from GAAIA (read the FOI documents in full online here):
[4] Data disclosed by Marine Scotland in September 2012 following a Freedom of Information request by GAAIA detailed a sordid disease history at the Lamlash Bay salmon farm including Chlamydia, Amoebic Gill Disease, gill problems and Epitheliocistis:
Read in full online here
Photos disclosed by Marine Scotland reveal disease problems at Lamlash Bay throughout 2012:
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Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, 28 September 2012
Judgment Day in Salmon Farming Kills Lawsuit
- Norwegian Government-Owned Cermaq Vs. Don Staniford
Madame Justice Elaine Adair’s judgment will be available from 10.30am (Pacific Standard Time) today (Friday 28 September) via the Supreme Court of British Columbia – online here
If Cermaq’s lawsuit and injunction are successful, over fifty statements will be deemed illegal and “any person”, “servants” or “agents” will be ordered to remove the ‘Defamatory Words’ from the internet:
Read more background via “Norway’s Injunction Kills Free Speech!” and “Gagging the Truth Becomes Mainstream”
Read Cermaq's 'Amended Notice of Civil Claim' - online here
“If successful, the injunction would outlaw bumper stickers like ‘Friends Don’t Let Friends Eat Farmed Salmon’ and 'Wild Salmon Don't Do Drugs' and truthful statements corroborated by peer-reviewed science such as ‘Salmon Farming Spreads Disease’ and ‘Salmon Farming Kills Wild Baby Salmon’,” said Don Staniford following the 20-day trial in February. “It’s a sad but simple fact that Norwegian-owned salmon farming kills all over the globe: whether it is the killing of sea lions in British Columbia; the deaths of workers in Chile; the slaughter of seals in Scotland or the devastation of wild salmon at home in Norway.”
“Norway now rivals China in its abuse of freedom of speech and the Draconian measures sought to suppress dissent,” continued Staniford. “The Norwegian Government, via their state ownership of Cermaq, is abusing the Canadian courts to muzzle global criticism of Norwegian-owned salmon farming. Norway’s reputation as a champion of free speech now lies in the gutter along with the Nobel Peace Prize it awarded in 2010 to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Shame on Norway, shame on Cermaq!”
Watch Norway’s TV2 reporting on the lawsuit – online here and online here
Speaking after the end of the 20-day trial, David Sutherland (legal counsel for Don Staniford) said:
“We need to create a separate cause of action, which does not have the adverse presumptions of defamation that protect the reputations of individual people but forces the corporation to, in fact, prove the sorts of damages and other criteria that are involved in the court of injurious falsehood.”
Watch via The Straight's: 'Media lawyer for Don Staniford calls for changes in the way corporations can sue for loss of reputation'
On the first day of the trial (16 January 2012), a police officer and officer from the Canadian Border Services Agency visited the court to inform Mr. Staniford he would be deported. Following the trial, Mr. Staniford was deported from Canada and moved immediately to Norway to “slay the dragon in its own lair”.
“Staniford began his journey back to Europe in the same over-the-top theatrical style that inflamed his targets: He arrived at Vancouver International Airport clad in an orange Guantanamo Bay-like jump suit and fake, rubber chains,” reported Global TV (5 March).
“The Canadian government chose to intimidate me on day one of my court case by turning up at the courtroom in a very public and calculated display of police force, yet, when deporting me, they were embarrassed by the orange jumpsuit and chose to whisk me out of public sight,” said Staniford in an interview with The Times Colonist (1 March).
Read more via “Don Staniford: Salmon Farming Critic Removed from Canada” and “Bad Boy Salmon Activists Teaming Up in Norway”
Madame Justice Elaine Adair’s judgment will be available from 10.30am (Pacific Standard Time) today (Friday 28 September) via the Supreme Court of British Columbia – online here
If Cermaq’s lawsuit and injunction are successful, over fifty statements will be deemed illegal and “any person”, “servants” or “agents” will be ordered to remove the ‘Defamatory Words’ from the internet:
Read more background via “Norway’s Injunction Kills Free Speech!” and “Gagging the Truth Becomes Mainstream”
Read Cermaq's 'Amended Notice of Civil Claim' - online here
“If successful, the injunction would outlaw bumper stickers like ‘Friends Don’t Let Friends Eat Farmed Salmon’ and 'Wild Salmon Don't Do Drugs' and truthful statements corroborated by peer-reviewed science such as ‘Salmon Farming Spreads Disease’ and ‘Salmon Farming Kills Wild Baby Salmon’,” said Don Staniford following the 20-day trial in February. “It’s a sad but simple fact that Norwegian-owned salmon farming kills all over the globe: whether it is the killing of sea lions in British Columbia; the deaths of workers in Chile; the slaughter of seals in Scotland or the devastation of wild salmon at home in Norway.”
“Norway now rivals China in its abuse of freedom of speech and the Draconian measures sought to suppress dissent,” continued Staniford. “The Norwegian Government, via their state ownership of Cermaq, is abusing the Canadian courts to muzzle global criticism of Norwegian-owned salmon farming. Norway’s reputation as a champion of free speech now lies in the gutter along with the Nobel Peace Prize it awarded in 2010 to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Shame on Norway, shame on Cermaq!”
Watch Norway’s TV2 reporting on the lawsuit – online here and online here
Speaking after the end of the 20-day trial, David Sutherland (legal counsel for Don Staniford) said:
“We need to create a separate cause of action, which does not have the adverse presumptions of defamation that protect the reputations of individual people but forces the corporation to, in fact, prove the sorts of damages and other criteria that are involved in the court of injurious falsehood.”
Watch via The Straight's: 'Media lawyer for Don Staniford calls for changes in the way corporations can sue for loss of reputation'
On the first day of the trial (16 January 2012), a police officer and officer from the Canadian Border Services Agency visited the court to inform Mr. Staniford he would be deported. Following the trial, Mr. Staniford was deported from Canada and moved immediately to Norway to “slay the dragon in its own lair”.
“Staniford began his journey back to Europe in the same over-the-top theatrical style that inflamed his targets: He arrived at Vancouver International Airport clad in an orange Guantanamo Bay-like jump suit and fake, rubber chains,” reported Global TV (5 March).
“The Canadian government chose to intimidate me on day one of my court case by turning up at the courtroom in a very public and calculated display of police force, yet, when deporting me, they were embarrassed by the orange jumpsuit and chose to whisk me out of public sight,” said Staniford in an interview with The Times Colonist (1 March).
Read more via “Don Staniford: Salmon Farming Critic Removed from Canada” and “Bad Boy Salmon Activists Teaming Up in Norway”
Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, 26 September 2012
Staniford Testifies to Salmon Inquiry in New Zealand
Don Staniford of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture testifies today (4pm New Zealand Standard Time) to the New Zealand King Salmon Board of Inquiry via a conference call from Europe (read today’s hearing schedule online here). King Salmon (owned by Malaysia’s Tiong family and private equity firm Direct Capital) is seeking to build nine new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds. On Saturday (29 September), Guardians of the Sounds is organizing a flotilla protest against King Salmon’s expansion plans.
“GAAIA believes that further expansion of salmon farming in the Marlborough Sounds will inevitably trigger waste pollution, benthic contamination, toxic algal blooms as well as the spread of infectious diseases and mass mortality events,” said Don Staniford of GAAIA in his testimony. “If the history of salmon farming tells us anything at all it is the fact that overproduction causes problems wherever salmon farms operate. New Zealand ignores the global warnings at its peril.”
“Permitting salmon farming expansion is an open invitation for disaster and would jeopardise New Zealand’s green and clean image abroad,” continued Staniford. “Sanctioning even one new farm (let alone nine farms) in the Marlborough Sounds would be 100% irresponsible. There is only one Marlborough Sounds and once the Malaysian-owned King Salmon has fouled New Zealand’s nest it will simply move on and pollute somewhere else.”
GAAIA submitted a formal objection in April 2012 – along with 800 other stakeholders including Guardians of the Sounds and Marlborough District Council.
Don Staniford, an award-winning campaigner and author, visited King Salmon’s operations in the Marlborough Sounds back in 2003 and was alarmed even then at the scale of their operations (read more online here and here). The New Zealand Herald dubbed Mr. Staniford “the fish farm bogeyman”.
Read more details via “New Zealand’s King-Sized Salmon Problem”
Read more details on the New Zealand King Salmon Board of Inquiry online here
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Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, 13th December 2011
DFO Crime Scene
- Salmon Secrets Prompt Citizen's Arrest of Scientists
Nanaimo, B.C. – Wild Salmon Warriors at High Noon today will stage a citizen’s arrest of Government officials outside DFO’s Pacific Biological Station for non-disclosure of ISA. The charges relate to a recently leaked 2004 report co-authored by DFO’s Dr. Simon Jones and Dr. Garth Traxler detailing over 100 positive tests for ISA in farmed Atlantic salmon and wild Pacific salmon. Other protests are taking place today outside DFO offices in Tofino and Lillooet – and tomorrow in Victoria – as part of an ‘Action Week for Wild Salmon’.
“The Canadian Government have abjectly failed in their international obligations to report a deadly ‘Listed’ disease to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Cohen Commission and international community,” said Don Staniford of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA). “Protecting the Norwegian-owned Atlantic salmon farming industry rather than wild Pacific salmon is criminal. Heads must roll including the head of DFO’s Pacific Biological Station, DFO’s Pacific Region Director of Science and the Minister of Fisheries. All DFO scientists and officials responsible for covering up ISA ought to hang their heads in shame, apologize to the public and resign immediately.”
“Someone should be going to jail over this,” said John Werring of the David Suzuki Foundation on reading the secret DFO report (as quoted in the LA Times). “Never in my over 20 years of doing my work have I seen such duplicity by our government” (more details via ‘Fishyleaks’).
In April, protestors cordoned off DFO’s offices in Vancouver as a ‘Crime Scene’ and performed a mock citizen’s arrest of Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail Shea (watch video online here and here).
Last month (October 31), GAAIAwrote to the Canadian Government detailing “A History of Incompetence, Silence and Arrogance”. The letter (download online here) included:
“It is becoming abundantly clear that the Canadian Government and the Norwegian-owned salmon farming companies who control 92% of B.C.’s salmon farms have blood on its hands in relation to the spread of the European genotype of ISA to wild salmon in British Columbia – and potentially beyond the borders of Canada into Washington, Alaska, Russia, Japan, Oregon and California.....GAAIA alleges that the Canadian Government - as represented by various agencies including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) - are guilty of incompetence, silence and arrogance as well as negligence. In terms of the latter, GAAIA has consulted with a lawyer with a view to a private prosecution or lawsuit related to mischief, breach of public trust and/or malfeasance.”
This letter was sent BEFORE the damning revelations in November via ‘Fishyleaks’ – and before the Cohen Commission’s ISA hearings taking place in Vancouver on December 15, 16 & 19. DFO officials testifying to the Cohen Commission include Dr. Simon Jones, Mrs. Nellie Gagné, Dr. Kristi Miller, Dr. Peter Wright and Mr. Stephen Stephen.
Contact:
Don Staniford: dstaniford@gaaia.org (email to schedule a phone conversation)
More details via:
“Fishyleaks: Canadian Cover-Up on Infectious Salmon Virus - Leaked report reveals over 100 positive ISA cases in farmed and wild salmon” (November 30)
“Chronology of a Cover-Up in Canada: ISA in British Columbia” (November 25)
“ISA – Diary of Disease Disaster” (October 2011)
“Fish Farmageddon – The Infectious Salmon Aquacalypse” (August 2011)
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Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, 31st October 2011
Nightmare on Fraser River
- Deadly disease found in coho opens floodgates to legal action
Sointula, British Columbia – A second case of the deadly disease Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) was reported last week in coho salmon from Weaver Creek in the Fraser River watershed. The positive test was reported by the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) Reference Laboratory to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on October 20. Last week, lawyers representing the Canadian Government submitted details to the Cohen Commission – read the ‘Internal’ documents online here.
“There will be hell to pay for allowing ISA into British Columbia,” said Don Staniford of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA). “It’s a living nightmare that such a deadly disease has spread to coho salmon in the Fraser River following the positive tests in sockeye salmon on the Central Coast over 500 km away. The nightmare news is enough to make you scream blue murder.
GAAIA is now considering legal action against the Government and the Norwegian-owned salmon farming industry for allowing the European strain of ISA into B.C. The Provincial and Federal Government have clearly been negligent and derelict in their duty to protect wild fish. The industry and Government will need a water-tight insurance policy to compensate First Nations, fishermen and all those communities who depend upon healthy wild salmon.”
GAAIA alleges that the Canadian Government - as represented by various agencies including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) - are guilty of incompetence, silence and arrogance as well as negligence. In terms of the latter, GAAIA has consulted with a lawyer with a view to a private prosecution or lawsuit related to mischief, breach of public trust and/or malfeasance. GAAIA today wrote to the Minister of Fisheries (Keith Ashfield), the Minister of Agriculture (Gerry Ritz) and BC Minister of Agriculture (Don McRae) – download letter online here.
“Close the border and close the disease-ridden salmon feedlots operating in B.C. waters,” said Staniford. “The people of ‘Super-natural British Columbia’ want healthy wild Pacific salmon not disease-ridden Atlantic salmon feedlots. The spread of ISA to wild sockeye and coho salmon is the last nail in the coffin for B.C.’s beleaguered salmon farming industry. Norwegian companies – who now control 92% of B.C.’s salmon farms - have lost their social licence to operate.”
Read the documents online via ‘Fishyleaks’: http://www.superheroes4salmon.org/fishyleaks
More details online here
Read more details via the GAAIA reports "ISA: Diary of Disease Disaster" and "Fish Farmageddon: The Infectious Salmon Aquacalypse" - online here
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Monday 31st January 2011
Salmon Farming Kills
– Global Health Warning Issued on Farmed Salmon
Vancouver, British Columbia - The newly-formed Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture(GAAIA) this week launched a smoking hot international campaign against Big Aquaculture. ‘Salmon Farming Kills’ employs similar graphic imagery to the ‘Smoking Kills’ campaigns against Big Tobacco and warns of the dangers of salmon farming. Next month (February), GAAIA will issue a new report on salmon - ‘Smoke on the Water, Cancer on the Coast’ - followed by reports on shrimp, tuna and GE fish.
“Salmon farming kills around the world and should carry a global health warning,” said Don Staniford, global coordinator for GAAIA in British Columbia. “As good global citizens we need to face the fact that salmon farming seriously damages human health, the health of our global ocean and the health of wild fish. Salmon farming is spreading in Norway, Chile, Scotland, Canada, Ireland, the Faroes, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and now in Russia like a malignant cancer on our coasts. Quit salmon farming now and help stub out farmed salmon from the face of our precious planet.”
“Expensive PR campaigns promoting farmed salmon as ‘safe’ and ‘sustainable’ serve only to raise the alarm that salmon farms harm,” said Kurt Oddekalv, leader of Norges Miljøvernforbund (Green Warriors of Norway) in Norway. “Salmon farmers are shooting themselves in the foot by denying peer-reviewed scientific evidence detailing human health and environment risks. Here in Norway the industry is on death row with infectious diseases, sea lice infestations, chemical resistance, escapes and depleted fish feed issues looming as the last nails in the coffin.”
“By draining our Southeast Pacific oceans of wild fish for feed, Norwegian-owned salmon farmers are robbing Pedro to pay John and stealing fish out of the mouths of Latin Americans,” said Juan Carlos Cardenas, a veterinary doctor and Director of Ecoceanos in Chile. “This lethal industry has been responsible for the deaths of divers and sixty four workers as well as hundreds of sea lions and other marine birds and mammals. The bad practices of Norwegian companies operating here in Chile provoked the most important sanitary, environmental and social crisis in the south Chilean coastal regions where 20,000 jobs have been destroyed during the last three years. The industry has blood on their hands and ought to hang their heads in shame.”
“If the fish farmers want to play the same game as the cigarette manufacturers did for many years and live in denial they’re welcome to it but it’s not going to give rise to any solutions,” said Canadian biologist Otto Langer (quoted in the documentary film Farmed Salmon Exposed: The Global Reach of the Norwegian salmon farming industrywhich was screened in Paris during last year’s Seafood Summit and at film festivals around the world).
“I would never feed a child farmed salmon,” said Canadian scientist David Suzuki (as quoted in The Toronto Star). “It’s poison!"
GAAIA is an international network dedicated to advancing environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. GAAIA recognizes that salmon, shrimp, tuna and 'Frankenfish' farming jeopardizes sustainable and safe seafood production.
Don Staniford, global coordinator for GAAIA is attending the Seafood Summit - ‘Responsibility Without Borders?’ – in Vancouver (31 January – 2 February).
For more details on GAAIA please visit: www.gaaia.org
For more details on ‘Salmon Farming Kills’ including photos please visit: http://www.gaaia.org/salmon-farming-kills
Contacts:
Don Staniford, global coordinator for the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA): dstaniford@gaaia.org (+1 604 787 3390 in Vancouver; and +44 7502 487613 – in UK)
Juan Carlos Cardenas, Director of Ecoceanos: +56-2-2053855 (in Chile)
Kurt Oddekalv, Leader of Norges Miljøvernforbund (Green Warriors of Norway): +47 90 89 22 68 and +47 917 04 361 (in Norway)
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