Chamber and committees

I have mentioned the growing use of cleaner fish. I would be interested in understanding the regulatory implications that that has for SEPA, as well as what data SEPA is collecting from fish farms on the use of such fish.

So, that is the direction that we are going in and our aspiration.

Good morning. I want to focus on the use of chemicals. How have the regulatory changes that have been made since the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee’s report impacted on chemical use and waste arising from fish farms?

So, you are saying that the 210 farms will have different limits on the medicines that they can use, depending on circumstances such as their location. I am interested in understanding how many farms are still using emamectin benzoate in the same quantities as in 2018. Do you have that information?

Will you say that again, about the bulk of the operational farms?

Urgent action was called for in 2019, I think, and we are now quite a long way off from that.

In connection with that, I am interested in understanding what is being done to manage the chemical impact of the sector on the environment, in particular on the sea bed.

I thought that we were supposed to be reducing that.

Do we know the timing on that process?

Do you ever do that?

I want to stick with impacts and to understand whether the regulatory framework touches on this or whether it is something else separately. At the moment, there is permitting of one farm at a time. Why do we not look at the cumulative impact if, for example, a number of farms are close together? I hear your point that the industry is beginning to think about moving offshore and getting larger, and maybe that will change things, but, at the moment, existing farms are having a cumulative impact with things such as hydrogen peroxide, but we are not looking at the whole permitting system. We are already looking at a situation where there are a number of farms, and then we are saying that another farm can go here but we are not looking at the overall situation.

Again it is about balance. Surely it would be better to have an overview of the impact of the entire industry on other users of the sea. For example, we know that the chemicals have an impact on commercial fish stocks, particularly crustaceans—crab, lobster and prawns—on our priority marine features and on our marine protected areas. There is something there about needing to look at the bigger picture. Is that something that this new framework does for you?