Chamber and committees

What are they actually doing there?

So, you are saying that recommendations 9 and 10 in the REC Committee’s report were wrong.

I have a couple of questions about cleaner fish, but, before I go there, I want to pick up a few things on the sea lice issue. When you are counting sea lice on fish in a cage, how many fish do you inspect?

I was asking specifically about those two recommendations in the RECC report—recommendations 10 and 9. Recommendation 10 is that

“there should be a process in place which allows robust intervention by regulators when serious fish mortality events occur. ... this should include appropriate mechanisms to allow for the limiting or closing down of production until causes are addressed.”

Recommendation 9 is that

“no expansion should be permitted at sites which report high or significantly increased levels of mortalities, until these are addressed to the satisfaction of the appropriate regulatory bodies.”

I asked whether it the case that those recommendations have not been implemented yet.

So, five fish are inspected, out of several thousand fish in a cage.

I am also interested in hearing your thoughts on the fish health inspectorate’s case report that sets out the numbers of salmon dying after physical and chemical sea lice treatments. You were talking to Emma Roddick about how fish farming is in a good space, but your reports say that there are large numbers of salmon dying after sea lice treatments.

My understanding is that the salmon farming sector is expanding. How are we measuring that? We are saying that the numbers of lice are going down but that salmon farming is expanding. Have you done the sums to know, in absolute terms, whether the numbers have fallen, given that the sector is expanding?

You said that the mortalities are higher than you would like. What level are they at now and where would you like to see them?

Do you know what the timeline is for the SAWC investigation?

Do you have the sense that you are getting meaningful data if you are inspecting only five fish out of thousands?