Bakkafrost Scotland heading back to court to seek ban on activist

Salmon producer Bakkafrost Scotland is to resume its bid for a court order that would ban anti-salmon farming campaigner Don Staniford from its fish farms and other facilities.

Bakkafrost Scotland warned Staniford in November that it would seek an interdict (injunction) against him if he didn’t agree to stay off the company’s property, and later applied for the order to the Sheriffdom of North Strathclyde at Dunoon.

The action was sisted (suspended) while Staniford’s appeal against a “keep off” interdict granted by a sheriff in Oban to salmon farmer Mowi Scotland was heard and an opinion (judgement) delivered.

Mowi ban upheld

That opinion, delivered by Sheriff Principal Nigel Ross on March 14, maintained a ban on Staniford encroaching on to any property owned by Mowi Scotland at 47 sites, although a ban on him approaching closer than 15 metres from a pen was removed.

In a motion to the Dunoon court, Edinburgh legal firm Shepherd and Wedderburn, representing Bakkafrost Scotland, has applied to recall the sist for the company’s action against Staniford, and fix a date for the case.

“The reason for sisting the present proceedings no longer existing, given the Sheriff Appeal Court’s decision in Mowi Scotland Limited v Don Staniford, the sist should be recalled and the cause re-enrolled for further procedure,” Shepherd and Wedderburn wrote.

Danger to staff

Salmon farmers say Staniford’s practice of kayaking to salmon pens and climbing on to pen walkways in order to film inside pens using a GoPro camera on a long pole is both a biosecurity hazard and could lead to accidents that might endanger him and their staff.

Staniford visited the Faroes last Friday and says in a video posted online that he was “almost arrested” and briefly questioned by police after filming and asking questions at a facility operated by subsidiary FÖRKA, which uses bio-organic waste from Bakkafrost’s Strond hatchery and cow manure to produce biogas for power generation and bio-organic manure for farmers.

The activist was taken in a police car to the police station in Torshavn for questioning after an employee at the facility became concerned about his activity.

“We have just been questioned and they got information from us, but they didn’t arrest us, they were very, very nice,” said Staniford.