MP denies telling people not to eat farmed salmon

According to the Aberdeen Press and Journal, a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said Mr Benyon had backed his department’s Fishing for Markets project to establish why people are not buying other species to reduce the waste of perfectly good fish being thrown away at sea.

He told the newspaper that was particularly in relation to endangered cod and haddock. He added that the minister did not say people should not eat salmon or look for alternatives and wants to see the salmon industry grow and is fully supportive of it.

He said Mr Benyon did, however, urge the industry to do more to reduce the amount of fish meal from other species required to feed to salmon.

Mr Benyon was earlier under fire from the industry, which accused him of being “ill-informed and irresponsible”.

Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil, SNP fisheries spokesman, told the Press and Journal that he was “very, very pleased” Mr Benyon was not opposed to Scottish-farmed salmon and called on the minister to make a public statement on his position.