‘Dredging turns seabed to desert... only diving can keep scallops sustainable’

When Alasdair Hughson did his first dive for scallops 38 years ago, the seabed was teeming with life. Just last year, he returned to the same spot.

“It bears no resemblance,” said Alasdair, who was following in his father’s wake.

“You can still sometimes get scallops in dredged areas, they are pretty resilient. But everything else that used to be there isn’t any more.

“In some areas it will come back, but in our lifetimes, it will never be the same as it was.

“Other areas are lifeless, barren deserts. Even the structure of the seabed has changed.”

A massive 96% of scallops caught in Scotland are taken by dredging. Scallop harvesters in the UK use heavy-toothed dredges that can weigh more than two tonnes and penetrate between three and 10cm into the seabed, tearing up everything in their path.

Filmmaker and biologist Sir David Attenborough’s latest documentary, Ocean, available to stream from today, shows never-before-seen footage of the devastating impact of trawling on the seabed.

Alasdair says that after dredging – though it is different to trawling – the sea floor is similarly left with little life. Now campaigners are calling for the government to change legislation to protect Scotland’s seafloors.

Alasdair has only just surfaced from a dive off Uig in Skye. In the last year, he and his team at Keltic Seafare have been diving off Kyle of Lochalsh, Mallaig, Gairloch, Oban, Ullapool and Stornoway, each dive lasting up to an hour. His nostalgic spot isn’t the only place Alasdair sees the effects of dredging on the seabed.

According to Andrea Ladas, sustainable seafood officer at marine sustainability charity Open Seas, one of the biggest issues with scallop fishing is that divers and dredgers currently share the same grounds.

The charity’s Dived Not Dredged campaign hopes to encourage the government to change current regulations which allow scallop dredging boats to operate in over 90% of inshore waters around the UK and Scotland.

“Dived Not Dredged aims to shine a light on the Scottish hand-dived sector, which we believe is a great example of low-impact fishing and delivers high-quality and sustainable seafood,” said Andrea. “Scallop divers have to share grounds with dredging boats. By law, dredgers and trawlers can even tow away creels belonging to other fishermen. It’s like someone coming to your desk and scraping all your work away.

“We know there are lives behind the dredgers and trawlers, we don’t want them to lose their livelihoods, but we want regulations to be improved.”

Andrea added: “Hand-diving is a selective way of fishing – there is only a human-sized impact. One specific hand picks one specific scallop, there is no by-catch.

“If a dredger passes through somewhere they fish, they might have to change their plans for years – the seabed recovery after dredging can be between one and three years.”

The campaign also encourages chefs to be more transparent about fishing methods on their menus.

A number of Scottish chefs have already backed Dived Not Dredged, including Lloyd Morse, of The Palmerston in Edinburgh, Rosie Healey, of Gloriosa in Glasgow, Pamela Brunton, of Inver on the shores of Loch Fyne and James Ferguson, of the Kinneuchar Inn in Kilconquhar, Fife.

“We want chefs to say on their menu how their scallops and other seafood were caught,” said Andrea.

“We did a survey last year on the west coast and, out of 111 restaurants, 57 served scallops. Of those, 12 stated the catch method, and all were hand-dived. No one wants to admit they are using dredged scallops. If we collectively don’t like to share that, why are we still doing it?”

There is an added cost involved in opting for hand-dived scallops.

“Dredging is like mass production, so they are cheaper, but we are paying for it in other ways,” said Andrea. “We pay for it in the need to restore these environments after they have been damaged. The sea is a public asset, and someone is making a profit from it while damaging it in the process. Future generations won’t have access to the same jobs and seafood as a result.”

Consumer attitudes towards seafood are more difficult to change, but adjusting the way people think of scallops specifically could help chefs make more sustainable decisions.

“We need to look at scallops as a treat, like a steak,” she said. “We can have things like mussels more often, they are very sustainable. We don’t always need scallops on the menu, or if we do have them, we could have three hand-dived scallops rather than five dredged ones.”

Scallops are a popular dish in restaurants.

There are glimmers of hope. Having been diving for nearly four decades, Alasdair has seen areas of the seabed recover from what looked like total destruction.

“It used to happen every day that we would go to a site and find it had been dredged,” he said. “We were almost exclusively working in areas that had recently been dredged and it was very difficult. That changed in about 2018 as some areas were closed to scallop dredging and protected, like Wester Ross. After three or four years, we started to see a recovery of stock. Some areas have really bounced back.”

To find out more about Open Seas’ Dived Not Dredged campaign, go to openseas.org.uk/dived-not-dredged/

Wild salmon at risk as lice build resistance to fish farm insecticide

By Mark Howarth

Destruction of wild salmon by fish farms could be worse than feared because of a controversial chemical backed by Scottish ministers.

Emamectin benzoate – known as Slice – is designed to kill off lice that infest farms, but the parasites are becoming resistant to it.

SNP ministers have ignored campaigners who want it banned for the environmental damage it causes, instead extending its use in Scottish waters to 2028. The decision came after Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon was wined, dined and lobbied by industry chiefs without officials present. But now the Irish Government has sounded a warning that Slice is becoming less effective.

New research shows young wild salmon passing coastal fish farms are increasingly falling prey to lice spilling out of pens. The report, by Inland Fisheries Ireland, concludes: “Results of the analysis provide clear evidence of significantly reduced return of adult salmon linked to salmon lice infestation from marine salmon farms. Data also suggests… the effects of lice from local salmon farms on wild stocks are underestimated (in previous studies)” because of growing resistance to Slice.

The insecticide can damage human DNA, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has found it leaking from fish farm pens and harming sea life.

During a 2023 consultation, an immediate clampdown was called for by bodies including the National Trust for Scotland and the Marine Conservation Society. But Salmon Scotland urged ministers to delay fresh regulation. And the Scottish Government decided last summer to allow the use of Slice until 2028.

The ruling came shortly after Salmon Scotland treated Gougeon and her husband Baptiste to £1,500 worth of lavish rugby hospitality.

The couple were guests of chief executive Tavish Scott at Scotland’s Six Nations clash with France at Murrayfield in February 2024.

In apparent multiple breaches of the Ministerial Code, she didn’t declare the gift, and because she took a relative rather than an official, there is no note of what was talked about.

The Scottish Government has insisted Slice was not discussed.

The same sequence of events played out two years earlier when France were previously in Edinburgh to play Scotland.

Wild salmon are spawned in rivers but then, as smolts aged between one and three, they head out into the Atlantic to feed – later completing their life cycle by returning to the same waterways to breed. Their journey often takes them close to scores of fish farms dotted around the coast.

The industry is worth £760 million to the Scottish economy and employs 2,500 people, but in 2023 a total of 17.4 million fish died prematurely in captivity amid enduring concerns over animal welfare.

Now the latest research suggests Slice’s increasingly poor performance is leaving wild salmon too at risk of deadly lice infestations.

The experiment saw pairs of smolts – some treated with Slice and others not – embark on their Atlantic migrations between 2001 and 2019. Treated salmon were 22% more likely to safely return to their rivers, but that figure decreased when they passed farms with heavy lice infestations.

It also dropped steadily over the years, suggesting the bugs are becoming increasingly resistant to Slice.

Wild salmon is “at risk of extinction” in Scotland, it was claimed last month. Anglers on 153 of 212 rivers have been hit with a “catch and release” order by the Scottish Government because numbers are now so low.

The latest study – a collaboration with the Norwegian Research Centre in Bergen and Canada’s Dalhousie University, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology – warns: “(This analysis) points to salmon lice from salmon aquaculture as a mechanistic threat to wild Atlantic salmon.”

Campaign group WildFish Scotland said the study conclusions are “exactly what we have been saying for years”.

Interim director Andrew Graham-Stewart added: “It is permitted to use a host of highly toxic chemicals, including Slice, for the treatment of parasites and diseases.

“After treatment, the remaining chemicals are routinely released into the wider environment with lethal consequences for other marine life, particularly crustaceans.

“However, regulatory change has seen substantial watering down and delay, in response to heavy lobbying of Scottish ministers by the major salmon farming companies in Scotland.

“Make no mistake, this industry, as it is currently run, is driving many wild Atlantic salmon sub-populations inexorably towards extinction.”

The Scottish Government said: “We carefully considered all responses to the consultation on the use of Slice, including the need to protect the environment, maintaining support for fish health and continued sea lice management during a transition period. “To protect wild fish, Sepa introduced a new framework to manage the risk of sea lice from fish farms in February 2024.”

Salmon Scotland said: “Fish farmers use Slice as a fully licensed product, approved by vets and regulators.”