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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 26 December 2024
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Displaying 4578 contributions

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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

That is interesting, is it not? It is tricky, because there are different actions for existing sites. Some things—maybe sea lice things—are rolled out on existing sites, but the emamectin benzoate standard will not be rolled out, because we are waiting for the Scottish Government—

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

Yes, I understand that, but I am most interested in existing sites, where that has not happened yet, because we are waiting for—

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

Edward Mountain may know more about this than I do, and he will have questions later, but, overall, some of the trigger is around the polluting effects of the industry. We are talking about solid waste, bath chemicals and pesticides, and that is what we are trying to reduce. That is a tricky thing. It comes back to the question that the convener or Rachael Hamilton asked about how we balance the expansion of the industry while we are trying to address its environmental impacts.

There will inevitably be more solid waste, because we are expanding the number of fish in the cages and the amount of chemicals and pesticides that need to be used to mitigate various problems such as sea lice is also expanding, although I understand—we will get on to a question about this soon—that there are attempts to use fewer chemicals and pesticides through using cleaner fish. That is what we are trying to do, and that is a challenging thing.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

Do you want to name anything specific?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

Could you just unpack the areas that are known, as hazy as they are?

09:45  

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

My understanding is that the fishery boards and trusts have been collecting data on the impact of sea lice in a particular water body for a number of years, funded by salmon farming companies and the Scottish Government, often for the purpose of environmental management plans. If that data exists, what are the barriers to SEPA using that data to inform its enforcement decisions?

11:45  

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

You have access to the data and are using it.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 19 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

I have heard differently in relation to cleaner fish disappearing. Maybe that is something that we can look at.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

Thanks for that. I will bring in Miles Briggs.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Ariane Burgess

That brings us to the end of our questions. Thank you for coming in and joining us online today. It has been helpful to hear the perspective of the councils.