SARF 054
CONTAINMENT SPECIAL
Lessons to be learnt from SARF 054
MAKING SENSE OF THE SARF CONTAINMENT REPORT
ticularly severe storm which was responsible for 12 escape events and 821,000 escaped fish. The overall trend appears to be head- ing towards lower numbers of incidents and lost fish, with escape figures for 2010 being the lowest recorded in Scotland to date. The previous lowest number was in 2008. Containment issues in Scottish salmon farming are covered through adherence to the Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Farming (CoGP) with similar provisions in Quality Trout UK (QTUK) for the trout sec- tor. Adherence to the CoGP is a condition of membership of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO), whilst the British Trout Association (BTA) strongly recommends to their members that they farm in accordance with QTUK. This means that some 95 per cent of Scottish farmed fish is covered by these protocols.
he SARF study ‘Assessment of Proto- cols and Development of Best Practice Contingency Guidance to Improve Stock Containment at Cage and Land-Based Sites’ aimed to investigate and assess fish escape incidents in Scottish fish farms. The authors, Thistle Environmental Partnership, analysed existing information, carried out targeted research and had extensive consultations with fish farming companies and equipment suppliers. This allowed them to identify the major causes and underlying issues behind breaches of containment and present statistics on escape incidents. They were also able to determine what has already been done by Scottish fish farmers and equipment suppli- ers to address the issue of containment and recommend actions to be taken in the future. Their research also included a review of the protocols that address containment, both in Scotland and worldwide.
T Escape statistics
The study covered a seven-and-a-half-year period, between May 2002 and October 2009. Figures peaked in 2005, due to a par-
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Seventy six per cent of all reported Scottish escape incidents during the study period were from sea water cages. Seventy five per cent of all escape incidents were Atlantic salmon, with rainbow trout the second most important species by far. Therefore, to improve con- tainment, it is necessary to address both sea water and freshwater operations and to focus on salmon and rainbow trout.
Other salmon and trout producing countries also experience escapes. The study aimed to find out more about Scottish escape incidents in order to obtain a greater understanding of the causes of escapes. Escape causes have often been categorised by the use of a single descriptor eg ‘hole in net’ or ‘weather’. The report’s authors felt that this was insufficient to adequately characterise the event or to provide sufficient insight in order to discuss how to improve the situation. In the SARF study, where possible, each incident has been characterised in terms of the immediate cause (eg hole in the net), the underlying causes(s) (eg chafe/snag) and contributory factors (such as use of equipment and weather). Weather and environmental conditions were not used as immediate or underlying causes, since equipment and op- erations should be designed and planned to address weather conditions. Human error was also not used as a cause because it appears to have been an element in many incidents that the use of this term is not helpful. Fur-
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