FISH WELFARE ON SCOTLAND’S SALMON FARMS A REPORT BY ONEKIND Lorem ipsum CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 2 6.3.1 Increased aggression 26 6.3.2 Increased spread of disease and parasites 26 2 SALMON SENTIENCE 6.3.2 Reduced water quality 26 AND INDIVIDUALITY 4 6.3.4 Issues with low stocking densities 27 2.1 Fish sentience 5 6.4 Husbandry 27 2.2 Atlantic salmon as individuals 5 6.4.1 Handling 27 6.4.2 Crowding 28 3 ATLANTIC SALMON LIFE CYCLE 6 6.4.3 Vaccination 28 3.1 Life cycle of wild salmon 6 6.5 Transportation 28 3.2 Life cycle of farmed Alantic Salmon 6 6.6 Failed smolts 29 6.7 Housing 20 4 SALMON FARMING IN SCOTLAND 8 6.8 Slaughter 31 5 KEY WELFARE ISSUES 10 7 MARINE WILDLIFE WELFARE IMPACTS 32 5.1 High mortality rates 10 7.1 Wild salmon and trout 32 5.2 Sea lice 11 7.2 Fish caught for salmon food 33 5.2.1 How do sea lice compromise 7.3 Seals 33 the welfare of farmed salmon? 11 7.4 Cetaceans 34 5.2.2 How are sea lice levels monitored? 12 7.5 Crustaceans 34 5.2.3 How severe is sea lice infestation in Scotland? 13 8 FUTURE CHALLENGES 35 5.3 Disease 14 8.1 Closed containment 35 5.3.1 Amoebic Gill Disease 15 8.2 Moving sites offshore 35 5.3.2 Cardiomyopathy Syndrome 15 5.3.3 Infectious salmon anaemia 15 9 ACCREDITATION SCHEMES 5.3.4 Pancreas disease 15 AND STANDARDS 36 5.4 Treatment for sea lice and disease 16 9.1 Certification in Scotland 36 5.4.1 Thermolicer 17 9.2 What protection do standards provide salmon? 36 5.4.2 Hydrolicer 17 9.2.1 Soil Association Organic standards 36 5.4.3 Hydrogen peroxide 17 9.2.2 RSPCA Assured 36 5.5 Cleaner fish 18 9.2.3 Code of Good Practice 37 5.5.1 Wrasse 18 5.5.2 Lumpsucker 18 10 LEGISLATION AND INSPECTION 38 5.5.3 Welfare of cleaner fish 18 10.1 Animal Health and Welfare 5.6 Escapes 21 (Scotland) Act 2006 38 10.2 The Welfare of Animals (Transport) 6 OTHER WELFARE ISSUES 22 (Scotland) 2006 39 6.1 Confinement 22 10.3 Aquatic Animal Health (Scotland) 6.1.1 Jellyfish and Algal Blooms 22 Regulations 2009 39 6.1.2 Predation 23 10.4 Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2013 39 6.1.3 Weather 24 10.5 Inspections 39 6.1.4 Unnatural behaviours 24 6.2 Health defects 24 11 RECOMMENDATIONS 40 - 45 6.3 Stocking density 26 Published by OneKind 2018 Registered charity no. SC041299 RESEARCH AND REPORT Sarah Allen [email protected] 50 Montrose Terrace, Edinburgh, EH7 5DL DESIGN John Nicol [email protected] www.onekind.scot 1: INTRODUCTION The industry is growing fast, with the Scottish Scotland is the Government committed to targets of production for largest farmed over 45 million salmon in 2020 and over 65 million in 2030, from a 2016 level of 35 million individuals. salmon producer Yet the industry is facing major challenges. The impacts in the EU and the of salmon farming on Scotland’s biodiversity and natural environment are increasingly well - documented third largest in and debated, but the welfare of the tens of millions of the world. fish involved in the industry is often forgotten. This report focuses on the welfare of fish on salmon farms specifically because they dominate the Scottish aquaculture industry, making up more than 90% of aquaculture production. Protecting the welfare of these Page 2 FISH WELFARE ON SCOTLAND’S SALMON FARMS iStock phbcz photograph by by photograph fish and preventing suffering is a moral imperative, but Furthermore, the industry’s Code of Good Practice it is also critical to the viability of the industry itself. (2015), that guides 90% of salmon farming production, Consumers expect healthy, happy and sustainable fish, notes that “Fish health and welfare is paramount at and poor welfare also leads to direct economic losses. each stage of production”. This has long been recognised, with a 1995 review This report does not attempt to provide a concluding that “to maintain salmon farming as a viable comprehensive review of the environmental impacts industry it is necessary to continue to focus on the well of salmon farming, which are well highlighted by other - being of fish” (Juell, 1995). Indeed, industry leaders groups such as Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland themselves recognise this. For example, Marine Harvest and the Scottish Salmon Think - Tank. However, there (2018a) describes it’s focus as always being on “health are many overlaps between welfare and environmental and welfare” and note that it “makes no commercial concerns, such as sea lice, escapes, and the use of sense to neglect the welfare of fish and to employ acoustic deterrents, which we explore in detail here. anything but the best husbandry techniques”. FISH WELFARE ON SCOTLAND’S SALMON FARMS Page 3 2: SALMON SENTIENCE AND INDIVIDUALITY iStock Prefect Stills iStock Prefect photograph by by photograph Page 2 FISH WELFARE ON SCOTLAND’S SALMON FARMS It is easy to forget about the individual 2.2 Atlantic salmon as individuals when discussing salmon farming, Atlantic salmon have been shown to have unique personalities, with individuals varying in their avoidance especially given the sheer scale of the behaviour. Church and Grant (2018) exposed fish to a industry. It is, however, the case that novel object and measured their responses, finding that each salmon farmed in Scotland is a some individuals were bolder, and quicker to approach unique individual, capable of suffering. the object than others, who were warier. Atlantic salmon are also unique in their appearance. 2.1 Fish sentience They have unique spot patterns on their gill coverings It is now widely acknowledged that fish are sentient which are distinct enough that humans can distinguish animals, capable of feeling pain. It is known that the between individuals (Stien et al. 2017). Salmon can pathways for feeling pain in fish share similarities also distinguish between friend and foe, with research with those in humans (Brown, 2015). Sneddon showing that they use smell to differentiate between (2015) compared the ability to feel pain between fish individuals (Brown and Brown 1992). and terrestrial mammals and found that they both demonstrated the same evidence for feeling pain. Salmon can use their skin colour to communicate. This includes possessing nociceptors (pain receptors), Fish that are losing territorial disputes become darker moving away from a noxious stimulus and paying a in colour, a change that was found by researchers cost to avoid an adverse stimulus. An example of fish to reduce the number of times the “loser” fish was feeling pain can be seen in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus attacked (O’Connor et al. 1999). It is therefore likely mykiss) - a species in the same family as Atlantic salmon that darkening in colour acts as a sign of submission (Salmo salar), the Salmonidae. Research has shown that, from the losing fish, which prevents them from receiving if a chemical is injected into their lips, they rub their further damage from their aggressor (O’Connor et al. lips on the gravel and against the side of the tank, and 1999). this behaviour is reduced once provided with morphine (Sneddon, 2003). Within aquaculture, salmon vary in their physical appearance and behaviour, with some fish being A number of studies have clearly demonstrated that described as “loser fish”. These fish can make up salmon feel pain. For example, stimulation of the tail nearly a quarter of stocked salmon globally, and are base of Atlantic salmon results in electrical stimulation characterised as being smaller, anorexic, and less active. of an area of the brain known as the telencephalon, On investigation of these “loser fish”, Vindas et al. which is associated with emotion and pain perception (2016) found that they exhibit behaviour and serotonin (Nordgreen et al. 2007). Salmon also change their levels that could be described as a “depressive state”. behaviour in response to an adverse experience. Helen - Bjørge et al. (2011) found that Atlantic salmon change their swimming and feeding behaviour after iStock Prefect Stills iStock Prefect suffering from peritonitis following vaccination. photograph by by photograph FISH WELFARE ON SCOTLAND’S SALMON FARMS Page 5 3: ATLANTIC SALMON LIFE CYCLE 3.1 Life cycle of wild Atlantic salmon 2016). Stripping can be damaging to fish as it involves Atlantic salmon are anadromous fish that, in the removal from water, handling, and requires placing a wild, migrate thousands of miles in their lifetime. strong pressure on the fish, which has the potential to Atlantic salmon that hatch in Scotland have been cause internal bleeding (Stevenson, 2007). shown to migrate as far as the Davis Strait, which is between Greenland and the Canadian Arctic (Scottish Causing damage to broodstock does not just Government, 2018). compromise the health of these individuals. In salmon, it has been shown that any stress that the mothers face Atlantic salmon start their lives in freshwater as eggs, can have a detrimental impact on their offspring, for which hatch to become alevins (fish still with their yolk example through reducing their feeding success and sac attached). They then subsequently become fry, increasing the amount of attacks they face (Eriksen and then parr. When they are physiologically ready for et al. 2011). migration to seawater, they become known as smolts. Once in seawater, Atlantic salmon can spend up to three Once eggs have been fertilised, they are kept in years at sea, though some salmon- known as grilse - freshwater hatcheries.