Ex-rocker Feargal Sharkey has blasted Scotland’s farmed salmon sector as a “treacherous industry” and claimed it is “decimating” wild fish populations in a blistering attack.
Despite farmed salmon’s status as Scotland’s top food export, activists have long warned of poor welfare standards for fish, claiming overcrowding has allowed lice and disease to spread. Sharkey told the Record: "I think the Scottish Government, in my view, are probably beginning to sadly take a leaf out of the Conservative government here in England - i.e. if it gets in the way of economic growth, we don't care.
In its new strategy for aquaculture, Scottish ministers stopped short of backing a previous pledge to double the sector by 2030 amid eco concerns. "And Scotland seems to be completely not willing or prepared to engage and show and demonstrate the kind of leadership that the world needs when it comes to protecting the coastal marine environment."
We’ve previously told how his activism has turned him into a champion for healthier rivers across Britain, campaigning to save our wild salmon and rallying opposition to the scourge of sewage pollution. It’s thought the grisly footage, at the Isle of Skye site owned by Faroese firm Bakkafrost, was down to the salmon being attacked by predator seals.