Chamber and committees

Okay. That is on the record.

Emma Harper has a question on a similar topic.

I think that it is probably more a discrepancy in what we think we are talking about than a natural discrepancy. Once again, though, we can follow that up with a letter to the witnesses and the fish health inspectorate.

I call Colin Beattie.

Mr Mountain, as a former convener of this committee, you know that, when the convener speaks, members do not speak. I do not think that your comments relate to the evidence that we are taking at the moment, so I caution you against saying something that you might regret. We are looking at a report into progress in the salmon industry and not at something that happened privately in your office. Unless you have a line of questioning that relates to the inquiry, I ask you to move on to your next question.

This is not appropriate at the moment.

Good morning, and welcome to the 24th meeting in 2024 of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee. Before we begin, I ask everyone to ensure that all electronic devices are switched to silent.

We have apologies from Elena Whitham and Beatrice Wishart. I welcome Christine Grahame and Liam McArthur as substitutes.

Our first item of business is an evidence session with representatives of the salmon farming industry as part of our follow-up inquiry into salmon farming in Scotland. I welcome to the meeting Dr Ralph Bickerdike, head of fish health at Scottish Sea Farms; David Brown, Shetland seawater manager at Cooke Aquaculture Scotland; Ben Hadfield, chief operating officer of farming for Scotland, Ireland, the Faroes and Atlantic Canada from Mowi Scotland; Kimberley McKinnell, head of health at Bakkafrost Scotland; Constance Pattillo, head of farming operations at Wester Ross Fisheries; and Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland.

I also welcome Edward Mountain, who will take part in the discussion.

I ask each of the witnesses to briefly introduce themselves. Please keep your introduction to your role. Everyone will have plenty of opportunity to add further as members start to ask questions. I will start with David Brown and move anticlockwise.

I will tease out one or two things for clarity. You suggested that 250 fish were removed from one pen but that that did not meet the voluntary mortality reporting threshold.

Emma Roddick has a supplementary.

Thank you.

I can confirm that.

I call Ariane Burgess.