Scottish Fishery Boards criticise SSPO chief executive

The programme featured an investigation into the environmental impact of salmon farming, during which the BBC reporter asked Landsburgh if he agreed “that cheap farmed fish can harm wild stocks”. Landsburgh said there was no scientific evidence to prove this, stating that since official records began in 1952 “there has been a decline in the number of wild salmon returning to Scottish rivers year on year” prior to the first fish farm in Scotland in 1972, the Fish and Fly reported. Howver, Andrew Wallace, managing director of ASFB and RAFTS, claimed they had produced graphs, based on the official records which refuted Landsburgh’s contention. He said the trend from 1952 in Scotland was “most definitely upwards” and there was no decline until the mid 1970s. Furthermore the graph for those areas of the west Highlands and Islands affected by salmon farming shows that there was no decline before 1979 and that this only escalated from the late 1980s, coinciding closely with the major expansion of the salmon farming industry. Wallace said it was unacceptable that the chief executive of a major trade body should draw these conclusions “when the evidence is so clear”. “One wonders just how the SSPO and its members can justify the expenditure of their own and Government’s time and money on solving a problem he apparently fails to even recognise,” he said.Responding to these claims Landsburgh, said: “I am surprised to see these assertions as they run counter to the recently-published scientific report supported by the Scottish Government and wild fisheries representatives, which clearly states that official ‘catch records indicate that the broader scale fishery declines commenced before salmon farming became established.”