Zones planned to protect wild salmon from sea lice in Scotland
By Kevin KeaneAn extensive network of wild salmon protection zones is being proposed along Scotland's west coast.
There are more than 200 farms of caged salmon in the sea or lochs close to Scotland's west coast, producing 200,000 tonnes of the fish each year, worth £360m to the Scottish economy.They can spread quickly through fish farms when untreated, as well as to migrating wild salmon. About 120 potential zones of varying sizes have been identified along the west coast and Western Isles, in areas through which wild salmon migrate.
Sepa's head of ecology, Peter Pollard, told BBC Scotland: "We've done some scenario modelling and it shows that tighter but achievable lice control on those farms would be sufficient to achieve levels that protect salmon." He added: "The most significant challenge to wild salmon is climate change and loss of habitat, as Sepa has acknowledged, and the focus for regulators must therefore be on improving water quality."
"You've got verification of data that is desperately needed. At the moment it's industry-supplied data which is not verified, and there's also quite a few loopholes for reporting.
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