Statement by Don Staniford, European Representative for the Pure Salmon Campaign

"The Scottish salmon farming industry must be congratulated for being the first to publish online monthly escapes figures. The next step is for other countries such as Norway, Chile, Canada, Ireland, Australia, the Faroes and the United States to do the same. Following a series of Freedom of Information requests, the Pure Salmon Campaign is compiling an international inventory and welcomes the input of the global salmon farming industry toward the establishment of an online database for all escape incidents.

"The Pure Salmon Campaign has long advocated the need for greater transparency in the public reporting of all escapes incidents. Escapes from open net cages is a global phenomenon; one that must be tackled internationally. Escapes in Chile, for example, during 2007 are estimated at more than 10 million due to the earthquake earlier this year. Escapes from Norwegian salmon farms totaled nearly one million during 2006.

"Multinational companies such as Marine Harvest and Cermaq need to reveal the full extent of the escapes problem to their shareholders, fishermen, retailers and the general public. The Scottish salmon farming industry — which itself has been responsible for more than three million escapees since 2000 — should be applauded for finally posting escape figures. The decision by Marine Harvest Scotland to reveal that 18,500 farmed salmon escaped from its Scotsay farm in March 2007 is a step in the right direction. Ultimately, however, the only real solution to prevent mass escapes, stop the spread of infectious parasites to wild fish and to control untreated waste effluent is to move to closed containment systems."

More from the Pure Salmon Campaign:

What they say about feed

Alexandra Morton’s presentation for the 2007 Cermaq Annual General Meeting on the impact of salmon farming on the Broughton Archipelago. Video.