Scientist pours scorn on wild salmon claim
(From The Orcadian dated September 28, 2000)

The two dead salmon found at the Bay of Isbister yesterday

In a week where dead farmed salmon continue to wash up on shores in Evie and Firth salmon farmers have been told to stop trying to “pull the wool” over the public’s eyes over the issue.

In a letter to The Orcadian, marine biologist, Mr James Mortimer from Stromness, who is studying at the International Centre for Island Technology (ICIT), says he is “dumbfounded” that the Orkney Fish Farmers Association (OFFA) suggested that the fish which had been seen were not in fact escaped farmed salmon but more probably wild fish.

Mr Mortimer, who outlines the differences between wild and farmed salmon, adds: “This just goes to show how unfamiliar OFFA are with the fish they farm and the environment within which they operate. There has never been a proper run of wild salmon into Orkney in living memory and historical mention of the fish is scant to say the least. It is also unheard of for wild fish to be ignorant of the phenomenon that is known as tide.”

A number of the sightings refer to the salmon apparently being stranded or caught out by the tide.

He concludes: “I am a marine biologist and it is obvious to me that Orkney’s historical and natural heritage is inextricably linked with the sea and the fish that swim in it. So OFFA please refrain from trying to pull the wool or for that matter the scales over our eyes.”

With the OFFA and individual fish farmers denying knowledge of any escape, the origins of the salmon appearing along the Firth coast remained a mystery this week.

Shellfish producer, Mr Duncan Geddes of Orkney Seafayre, said that his staff picked up a salmon still flapping last Monday, roughly 3-4lbs in weight, and it was definitely a farmed salmon.

Mr Geddes said that he himself had noticed gulls hovering around and picking at another dead salmon on the shore near their premises in Firth on Friday afternoon, but the birds had already devoured half the animal. But he said he was convinced that it could only have been an escaped farm fish.

Another Finstown resident, Mr Malcolm Russell, president of the Orkney Trout Fishing Association, told The Orcadian this week: “I personally have seen three salmon recently, one of which is now in my deep freeze. There is no doubt that they are escaped farm fish, but they could have come from anywhere, either Orkney, Shetland or even Norway. There is no way of telling.”

He said he had heard reports of shoals of salmon being seen all the way from Tingwall to Ayre Mills in Kirkwall. But because of the differing sizes of the fish it was unlikely that they all came from the same cage escape.

He concluded: “Escaped salmon have been seen here from time to time for years, and it’s really no big deal. They don’t constitute a massive problem. All the media interest seems to be about the fact that local fish farmers have denied that the salmon could have come from any of their farms.”

Another angler, Mr Ian Smith from Kirkwall, has also seen a number of dead farmed salmon. He found one on the shore at Davie’s Brig near Finstown, and another at Rennibister, while fishing. He said he also knew of people in Rendall who had found quite a number of salmon still living but stranded in rock pools, apparently unfamiliar with the ebb and flow of the tide.

Mr Smith added that he knew that the fish he had seen were farmed salmon because of the deformities on the tail and dorsal fins.

Commenting on these latest sightings, a spokesman from the Orkney Fish Farmers Association (OFFA), said: “The statement we issued last week was in response to a comment made by the Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen that the Bay of Firth was ‘full of fish’. Our own checks have found that there was probably only five or so salmon altogether. Our members have examined their cages with underwater cameras and walked the shore and have found no evidence of escapes.

“We don’t know where the fish may have come from, but it certainly is not from any of our members.”

One OFFA member, Mr Willie Baxter of Orkney Sea Farms, who owns the salmon cages moored off Puldrite in Rendall, the site closest to the recent farmed fish discoveries, told The Orcadian yesterday: “As soon as we heard the reports of fish being found in Firth, we did a check on our cages and found no sign of escapes or damage. In fact, what worries me, is the possibility of disease being spread from these salmon to any of our own fish.”

Suggestions that a workboat’s propellor had torn the net of a salmon cage which had led to the escape of fish were also vehemently denied by the company.