Salmon firms 'misleading' consumers, activists claim

Accusation of cover-up on death rates, sea lice and chemicals

- JANE DALTON

Scottish salmon companies are being accused of employing "greenwashing" tactics to cover up death rates, sea lice and chemical use, according to an investigation into the industry.

Supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, Michelin-starred restaurants, and even the royal family are all understood to buy the fish from Scotland’s seven salmon firms. The products are marketed as premium, based on high welfare standards, but it’s claimed that instead salmon commonly suffer grotesque deformities or disease, while the use of antiseptics and pesticides is damaging the environment.

The salmon giants deny “greenwashing”, insisting that their fish are healthy and the industry is highly regulated.

Footage was secretly captured at two salmon farms, one owned by Mowi and one by Loch Duart. The charity WildFish, which obtained the videos, said they showed bad ulcers on fishes’ bodies; jaw and spinal deformities; snout and jaw erosion; and mutilation between fish.

The group’s report, The Reality Gap: An Examination of Scottish Farmed Salmon, compared marketing used by the seven Scottish salmon-farming companies with death rates, sea lice levels and chemical use, and found that the companies “fail to adequately protect” both the welfare of fish and the environment.

The report says that in 2023, Scottish salmon farms registered a record premature death toll, of around 17.4 million. Mowi, the world’s largest salmon giant, which has supplied Tesco and Sainsbury’s, reported 4.7 million of those deaths, and the report lists more than 10 diseases found among its fish. Mowi, which has a royal warrant, has since fallowed its Invasion Bay site, where the filming took place.