THE full extent of seal culling around the Scottish coastline has been laid bare for the first timed in newly released documents revealing the salmon farms that kill the mammals to protect their farmed fish.
Ministers and salmon farming companies had sought to keep the “commercially-sensitive” data secret on safety grounds. But they have been forced into full disclosure by Scotland’s freedom of information commissioner.
The documents show that in 2013 and 2014 more than a third of Scotland’s 200 fish farms shot at least one seal, with a total of 173 mammals killed.
Of these, 56 were executed by Scottish Seafarms, which supplies salmon to Marks & Spencer. Hjaltland Seafarms/Grieg Seafood shot 36, and The Scottish Salmon Company killed 23. Data returned by fish farms suggest that very few seal carcasses are ever recovered.
Shetland accounts for almost half (49%) of seal killings, followed by Orkney (15%) and Argyll & Bute (14%).
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The salmon farm that has notched up the most killings belongs to Hjaltland/Grieg at East Voe in Laxfirth, Shetland.
The publication of the data is a victory for environmental campaigners who have accused some salmon farming companies of preferring to shoot seals rather than install costly equipment, such as strengthened anti-predator nets.
Last week, however, those who emerged as the biggest seal killers said that tougher nets are being installed to prevent attacks by rogue seals.
The Scottish government stopped publishing site-specific data early last year amid concern that it threatened the health and safety of salmon farm workers.
But Scotland’s FOI commissioner ruled in July that the risks existed regardless of the data being made public.
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Don Staniford, from the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, who forced the disclosure, said: “The public can read all the gory details for the first time and boycott seal-unfriendly Scottish salmon.
“It’s shocking that the vast majority of seal carcasses are not even reported let alone recovered or collected.”
The Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO), the industry’s umbrella body, pointed out that 80 seals were shot at fish farms last year from a population of approximately 148,000.
About 39% of the total number of seals shot were at fish farms, the remaining 61% at other fisheries.
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“A very small number of seals can be persistent killers, resulting in the slow and painful death of thousands of fish,” said a spokeswoman. “Fortunately, the methods to deter seals are generally very effective. As a result, the number of occasions when a persistent seal has to be shot on a fish farm has fallen and continues to fall.”
A spokesman for Grieg Seafoods said that in 2013 and 2014 seal attacks on its salmon cages caused more than £3m of damage. He said that stronger anti-predator nets were being installed at all sites and there was not expected to be a need to shoot seals beyond next year.
A spokeswoman from the Scottish Salmon Company, which operates more than 40 marine sites around the west coast of Scotland and the Outer Hebrides, said that seal culls had been taken “as a last resort” under a government licence over a two-year period.
These occurred “when rogue seals persistently interfered with the integrity of the nets. We have implemented an investment programme for farm infrastructure which includes nets, acoustic devices, and mooring replacement to ensure seals do not cause stress or damage to our fish”.
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A spokeswoman for M&S said: “Neither we nor our salmon farmers have any wish to see seals or any other sea life harmed. We have led the industry on this issue and invested time and money to avoid this happening. The RSPCA supports our approach, and is equally concerned about the welfare of farmed salmon as well as animals such as seals.”
The RSPCA, which endorses M&S farmed salmon under its Freedom Food scheme, said: “It is a sad reality of salmon farming that from time to time a predator may be able to bypass all efforts to exclude them, which may result in an attack on the fish.
“Such attacks can cause serious welfare problems, with potentially thousands of fish being killed. In these cases, the predator must be culled in a humane way and this method of control must only be enacted as a last resort.”
Scottish Seafarms declined to comment.