Bakkafrost defends 'responsible management' of mortality incident
RSPCA was satisfied with actions we took, says company after drone footage is released by vegan tycoon's anti-salmon farming foundation
Video footage of a farmed salmon being dumped into the sea and of live salmon struggling to breathe in a brail net shows “an isolated occurrence” at at Bakkafrost Scotland site off Skye, the fish farmer has said.
The drone footage has been released by the Green Britain Foundation (GBF), a group funded by vegan multi-millionaire Dale Vince and which opposes salmon farming.
The footage has prompted Tesco to suspend the purchase of fish from the site, although as the farm has been fallow since October, there are no fish to buy.
GBF has asked the Coop to follow Tesco’s lead but the retailer has not done so. It said all its salmon must meet the RSPCA Assured standard, and that any indication of poor standards would be immediately investigated and, where required, action taken.
Brail net
A GBF video lasting 10 minutes and 47 seconds shows various clips of fish being pumped from a pen into a brail net suspended from a deck crane on the Turas a Bhradain service vessel. The crane then extends and and rotates to deposit the fish into ensiling equipment.
In the first clip, it takes just over four minutes from the start of the filling of the brail to the point where the fish are desposited into the ensiling hopper. The period includes a few seconds during which fish farm workers wave at the drone camera being used by anti-farming activists to film them doing their job.
In some of the clips, one or two fish at the top of the brail can be seen still moving.
Another clip shows fish being loaded into mort bins on another vessel, Scorry. When the brail is lowered into an empty bin, the only obviously live fish is picked up and euthanised with a priest by a member of the crew.
Challenging conditions
The material was filmed at Bakkafrost’s Portree site between October 7 and 13, in the aftermath of a Pasteurella outbreak in which more than 170,000 salmon died. Bakkafrost has a policy of not using antibiotics to treat such diseases, and instead opts to harvest out sites that have outbreaks.
A spokesperson for Bakkafrost Scotland said: “This was an isolated occurrence at our Portree site in Autumn 2025. Our teams were working under extremely challenging conditions to responsibly manage a naturally occurring environmental event. The site is now fallow.
“We fully and openly cooperated with the RSPCA throughout their review, and they confirmed they were satisfied with the actions we took.
“We remain fully committed to robust welfare standards and to transparent, responsible farming in Scotland.”
