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Rising toxic tide alarms fishermen

Troubled waters: Opposition to a salmon farm on Skye is the latest symptom of deep unease over the industry's use of chemicals

Stephen Goodwin
Sunday 15 September 1996 18:02 EDT
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Inshore fishermen resisting plans for a salmon farm in Uig Bay on the Isle of Skye are the latest indicator of a deep unease in Scotland and beyond about the industry's dependence on an escalating diet of chemicals. Toxicologists believe its most recent fix could harm humans.

Fishermen and conservationists were dismayed 10 days ago when the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) sanctioned use of the neurotoxin Ivermectin to kill sea lice on salmon farmed off south Skye.

Applications to use the chemical on at least 50 more farms are in the pipeline. Sea lice are the scourge of an industry worth pounds 250m last year and supporting 5,500 jobs. Thriving in the confines of the floating cages, the lice cost the salmon farmers pounds 20m a year.

Sepa admitted that laboratory tests had shown Ivermectin to be highly poisonous to shrimp-like crustaceans and to worms that live in the sea bed. More alarmingly, a confidential report to the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers suggested that some human beings might be susceptible to the poison.

The report's author, John Duffus, director of the Edinburgh Centre for Toxicology at Heriot-Watt University, said that "most worrying" was Ivermectin's potential for accumulating. While occasional therapeutic use might be unlikely to cause problems, it "would tend to build up in the body with the possibility of reaching toxic levels" if continuously present in the human environment or diet in quantity.

"In the worst scenarios, levels might be reached which affect the human embryo in the womb, the human baby through breast milk and the aged as fat depots are mobilised in response to diseases of old age."

Little wonder that the prospect of a salmon farm in Uig Bay does not appeal to the 10 fishermen who make a modest living there gathering prawns, lobsters and crabs. Uig Community Council is objecting to an application to Sepa by the Skye-based Sgeir Mhor (Salmon) Ltd to discharge waste from cages.

"There are a lot of 'ifs' here," said Donald Campbell, an Uig fisherman. "If the salmon farm goes ahead, if they use Ivermectin, and if we are excluded from the area, it would be disastrous for us." A decision on Uig Bay is expected next month.

Conditions already set by Sepa include a ban on the use of Ivermectin within two miles of a shellfish farm. But while this was to allay fears of shellfish farmers that the public might "perceive" their oysters or scallops to be contaminated, it is illogical. There is no scientific case for the choice of two miles and ignores the fact that shellfish can be "wild gathered" right up to the salmon cages.

Hugh Allen, secretary of the Mallaig and North West Fishermen's Association, sees other dangers. "What happens with bottom-feeding fish like skate or monkfish? They could be feeding under the cages one day and caught the next."

Ivermectin is a common "in-feed" treatment for livestock. Feeding to salmon should stop at least 120 days before the fish are harvested. "But what about escapees?" asked Mr Allen. Sepa had been "pretty cavalier", he said, in giving the go-ahead when there was little research into Ivermectin's long-term effect on the marine environment. His criticisms were shared by the conservation body Scottish Wildlife and Countryside Link.

"Sepa are effectively making the commercial use of this chemical into a field trial. That rather reverses the Government's 'precautionary principle'," said Alison Ross, anadviser to Link. Sepa emphasised its "strict controls" on the use of the pesticide and its duty to consider the importance of fish farms for the local economy. Nor, under statute, can it "unreasonably" refuse consent.

"When the results of the field studies did not show the toxicity levels indicated by the laboratory experiments we felt that an extended trial of Ivermectin usage in fish farms was justified," said Professor David Mackay, director of Sepa's North region.

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