Wind energy tycoon and salmon farming critic Dale Vince, who claims the salmon sector is covering up the true number of birds that die after becoming trapped in netting at farm sites. Wind turbines are estimated to kill between 10,000 and 100,000 birds annually in the UK.

Salmon critic accused of 'glaring double standards' over bird deaths 

Wind farm tycoon Dale Vince says fish farming is covering up true number of avian casualties, but keeps quiet about thousands killed by turbines 

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Renewable energy tycoon Dale Vince has been accused of double standards by Scottish salmon farmers after he railed against the sector for allegedly failing to report instances of birds becoming trapped and dying at fish farms - but ignored the 10,000 to 100,000 birds estimated to be killed in the UK annually by wind farms like those that built his fortune.

Vince, a multi-millionnaire vegan who is understood to fund anti-salmon farming activism, has accused the salmon sector of covering up the scale of bird fatalities by failing to report them to Scottish Government agency NatureScot.

His accusation is based on an analysis by his Green Britain Foundation (GBF). The foundation analysed almost 1,000 monitoring spreadsheets spanning five years and obtained from NatureScot under Freedom of Information laws.

A bird entangled in netting during a visit by activists to a salmon farm when farm staff weren't present.

The data record 532 incidents of trapped wild birds and 129 deaths across Scottish salmon farms including including 48 dead common gulls, 36 dead lesser black-backed gulls and 22 dead herring gulls.

According to GBF, these figures are “a vast underestimate”.

“Of approximately 207 active Scottish salmon farms, 74 submitted no reports at all. A further 73 claimed to have trapped zero birds. Only 60 sites reported any incidents. Norwegian owned Mowi, Scotland's largest salmon farming operator, had just two sites report any trapped birds in 2025,” GBF states in a press release.

'The camera doesn't lie'

“We know the true picture is far worse because the camera doesn't lie. Footage gathered by Green Britain Foundation documents dead and trapped birds at multiple sites that submitted zero or misleading report.”

GBF says that examples of sites where discrepancies occurred include:

  • Loch a Chairn Bhain, where a dead gull and trapped gulls were filmed across two separate visits yet nothing reported to NatureScot for either
  • Loch Duich, where a heron was filmed trapped but the farm only reported two gulls that month, no heron
  • Kishorn B, where birds were filmed trapped but the farm's only submission to NatureScot was a single gull reported the previous year 
  • Ardmair, where a crow was filmed trapped but no reports were ever submitted to NatureScot
  • Bakkafrost submitted wildlife entanglement reports to the salmon industry's own certification body at two Scottish sites, but filed nothing with NatureScot

Vince claimed GBF’s analysis indicated a cover-up by the industry and described NatureScot as “a regulator that’s happy to look the other way”.

GBF is calling for mandatory real-time reporting, independent verification, cameras as a condition of licence, and penalties, including revocation, for operators who lie.

'Misrepresenting the facts'

A spokesperson for trade body Salmon Scotland said: “The double standard is glaring. Evidence shows wind turbines like those operated by Dale Vince kill significant numbers of birds, yet there is far less transparency about deaths at individual wind farms or by individual operators.

“Salmon farmers take their environmental responsibilities extremely seriously.

“This is another example of anti-salmon farming campaigners misrepresenting the facts and using selective claims to try to shut down farms that support 11,000 Scottish jobs.

“Information is shared with NatureScot voluntarily or as part of planning conditions. This helps improve monitoring and support investment in technology and infrastructure to reduce the risk of wildlife becoming trapped.”

74 turbines

According to its website, Vince’s green power company, Ecotricity, has built 74 wind turbines across 24 wind parks in Britain, generating enough clean energy to power over 56,000 homes.

There appears to be no mention of the bird fatalities caused by wind turbines on the Ecotricity website, but the company did acknowledge such deaths occurred in a Facebook post in May 2023, when it urged people to look at the turbine deaths in perspective.

“Yes, it's true that there are going to be some birds which fly into the blades and are injured, whether temporary or fatal, but you have to look at the bigger picture,” stated Ecotricity. “For every bird killed by a wind turbine, 17 are killed by fossil fuel power stations, and 5,820 are killed from simply flying into buildings and their windows. Even worse, around 27 million birds are killed by cats each year in the UK!

“So the bottom line is this: yes, birds are killed by wind turbines, but there are much larger threats to birds already in our everyday lives!”

dale vince bird deaths wind turbines news naturescot scottish salmon farming