Scotland's largest salmon farming operator - the UK division of Norway's Marine Harvest - suffered losses of 2.3 million farmed salmon (4,211 metric tons) during the first nine months of 2017, according to data from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). These figures, released to the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) following a Freedom of Information request, showed cardiomyopathy syndrome, gill disease (including amoebic gill disease and proliferative gill disease), treatment losses (including deaths due to the Thermolicer and toxic chemicals) and anemia were some of the biggest issues. Don Staniford, of the GAAIA, argued the SEPA data suggests the Scottish salmon farming sector is not dealing with disease issues, as it claims. "The Scottish parliament needs to take immediate action to reduce production on Scottish salmon farms which are ridden with diseases," he said. John Robins of Animal Concern claimed the overall number of mortalities on Scottish salmon farms surpassed 10m, with a mortality rate of 26.7%. Marine Harvest responded by stating, "the issue we have faced in 2017 with salmon mortalities has been well documented". "As we are farming in the natural environment we have times when we experience naturally occurring biological challenges. These challenges can be naturally occurring infections or environmental issues such as algal blooms or jellyfish. The important task is to deal with the issue as quickly as possible and remove the affected fish from the farm, leaving the remaining farm stock to grow on." Source - https://www.undercurrentnews.com