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US to block imports from seal cull salmon farms
Meg Milne
US Government officials are set to ban the import of Scottish salmon from fish farms where seals are shot.
The move follows Scottish Sunday Express revelations that seals are being slaughtered in the sea around Skye.
A secret cull is being carried out by marksmen for a multi-million-pound salmon giant in a bid to protect their fish stocks.
Yesterday it was revealed that government lawyers in Washington are studying a legal opinion warning that under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act it is illegal to sell fish produced on farms that shoot seals.
Amsterdam-based Marine Harvest, which predicts an annual turnover of one billion euros this year, ordered the cull after losing around 3,000 fish.
Marine Harvest, part of the giant Nutreco multi-national which employs 6,000 people in eight countries, insist seals must be shot to stop them attacking salmon at their Hebrides fish farm.
Yesterday, Don Staniford, the European co-ordinator of Pure Salmon, a fish-farming pressure group, applauded the American move.
Mr Staniford said: “Either the company stops killing seals or they potentially lose access to one of the world’s largest farmed salmon markets.
“The simple solution to the problem – as well as escapes, waste pollution and discharges - is to enclose the cages.”
On Friday, Mr Staniford attended a Nutreco meeting in Amsterdam and presented a dossier of our revelations to the company’s board.
Nutreco bosses were also given a copy of the legal opinion warning of US prohibition on the importation of salmon from their fish farm.
The controversial cull, to the west of Sron an Tairbh at Lock Alsh, has been condemned by campaigners demanding that seals are given more protection.
Local businessman Nigel Smith, who runs a local wildlife tourist business, photographed some of the dead animals.
Mr Smith said: “When I went past with a boat load of tourists all they could see was carcasses rotting on the beach.”
Marine Harvest insist they only shoot seals “as a last resort”.
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