We saw the comment and did not consciously …

Comment posted Salmon and Trout Association uses FoI to reveal serious sea bed pollution, corporate negligence and a disengaged SEPA by newsroom.

We saw the comment and did not consciously remove it. But yes – it is not here. Mr MacArthur pointed out that the fish in the photograph is a barbel and not a salmon. Not being anglers, we are in no position to argue and are happy to accept that. The photograph is described by Wikipedia as sea lice on a farmed salmon – and we accepted that.

We chose the image, It was not part of the Salmon and Trout Association’s Report.

But let’s not lose sight of the reality here. Sea lice on a farmed salmon are unlikely to look more palatable than sea lice on a barbel. The point of the report is the failure in compliance of farmed salmon producers to report on the toxic sea bed residues of the chemicals they use to try to contain the prevalence of sea lice – and the failure of SEPA to monitor such activities as they are supposed to do.

Quibbling about the precise fish to which the sea lice are attached in the photograph is a decoy to deflect attention from the potency of the evidence gathered here by the Association under FoI.

newsroom also commented

• We don’t know the start date, Hamish – but the reported results are from its first harvesting.

  Do we know – do we measure – what the sea lice quota is in the first harvesting of a new UK fish farm?

  Three sea lice in an entire harvest has to command respect until UK system data for a first harvest can be shown equal or better.

• Yes we did – but they may be more recent than that.

  While we had published earlier articles on this subject, we published not so long ago a series of highly informative research articles by Ewan Kennedy and we think you may have these in mind.

  The Search engine on this site is pretty good. If you type in ‘Ewan Kennedy’ it should find these articles for you in the list of returns.

• Anything – if it lets the argument stand clear of distraction. We have substituted the barbel with a photograph of salmon lice.
  Apologies for getting the fish wrong.
  We’re just hoping that this is not one of those jinxed stories where even the salmon lice in the replacement photo will prove to be lice that affect a rare species found only at the bottom of the Challenger Deep.
  Fingers crossed.

Recent comments by newsroom

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