Downside to onshore salmon

YOUR article “Sea-change as farm grows fish on land” (News 13th January) got my hopes up that finally we might be on the verge of producing seal-friendly, environmentally friendly, sustainable farmed salmon in Scotland. What a disappointment to then read that to make its proposed new onshore salmon farm ­viable, owners Fish From claims that stocking densities would need to be twice that of current sea-based production units. This would give the proposal a very negative mark as far as salmon welfare is concerned.

I can see why the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation is critical. If someone produces salmon without polluting our seas with effluent, sea-lice and chemicals and without shooting seals and depleting natural fish stocks by catching fish to turn into food pellets, they will blow existing floating factory fish farms out of the water. If Fish From can fully address the negative welfare aspects of its new production methods, it deserves to take a huge slice of the market.

John F Robins, Save Our Seals Fund