Scottish salmon farmers infuriated by seal campaigners

The Poll, conducted by YouGov revealed that 63 per cent of the public think the law should be changed to protect all UK seals from deliberate killing, with 13 per cent disagreeing. 

58 per cent believe that High Street retailers should not buy salmon from any suppliers that kill UK seals. 

44 per cent of people buying salmon products claimed they would be prepared to pay more for them to stop UK seals being killed. 

Responding to the poll, Scott Landsburgh , Chief Executive of Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO), said the industry was very angry about the claims: “Scottish fish farmers are absolutely infuriated that these campaigners continue to peddle unfounded and utterly inaccurate information about how we safeguard our salmon from predators.  

“Despite industry’s providing information to them, the media, the Scottish Government and politicians about the range of methods employed across the industry to deter predatory seals, the campaigners will not understand that they have simply no grounds to be making these damaging and misleading claims.  

“It is also a highly misleading survey containing a series of leading questions designed to elicit a reaction. By deliberately implying that an officially sanctioned cull of seals has begun, this is an extraordinarily inaccurate representation of government policy," Landsburgh said.