It’s an unseasonably warm November evening and at a packed public meeting in Ullapool, a Norwegian multinational is being quizzed over its plans for a fish farm.
Hosting the discussion is Ben Hadfield – chief operating officer of Mowi Scotland – who is seated beside colleagues from a subsidiary called Wester Ross Fisheries, who’ve just given a presentation on their proposal following a reception with tea, coffee and canapés. The hall is full, the floor now open for questions.
“Could you agree to trial it first?” “What’s this new system going to be like compared to what we have now?” Lesley Spencely, concerned over microplastic pollution, asks if Mowi has conducted the necessary tests on plastic pipes it plans to use. She wants the company to share its data to reassure the concerned audience that there’s no need for alarm. “We can commit to doing that and come back to you with the numbers,” Hadfield says, nodding his head. Spencely offers her thanks.
Tonight’s discussion is cordial, measured. It’s a stark contrast with a public meeting in May when Wester Ross Fisheries faced the wrath of irate locals who claimed they’d been lied to, as revealed by The Ferret. It was an allegation the firm denied, arguing there had simply been miscommunication, leading to a misunderstanding.

The stooshie was over plans for an industrial feeding system at a salmon farm on Loch Broom, a stunning spot which is part of the Wester Ross marine protected area. This zone was designated ten years ago by the Scottish Government to protect fragile seabed habitats and species like maerl – a pink seaweed – and flame shell beds, which are vital to the health of the local marine ecosystem. The loch supports local fisheries such as scallops, cod and herring.
The initial proposal, if it had been sanctioned by Highland Council, would have seen a large vessel called a feed barge allowed onto the loch to feed thousands of salmon at the Corry fish farm, which is run by Wester Ross Fisheries. But dozens of locals objected to the planning application which had been submitted in September 2023, including residents living close to the farm who feared more noise and environmental pollution.
Many objectors claimed the loch would be polluted by microplastics, which can damage marine ecosystems. They pointed out that the feed barge would use plastic pipes to deliver pellet food to the fish, which are held in pens on Corry farm. Abrasion of the pipes over time, they argued, would result in microplastics washing into the loch and entering the food chain. Feelings ran high and following the community pushback Wester Ross Fisheries withdrew its planning application – and tonight the company is trying to sell a revised plan to locals while seeking their blessing.

In some respects, the Loch Broom row provides a microcosm of the problems facing the fish farm industry in Scotland. Scottish farmed salmon is the UK’s biggest food export, sold to 50 countries across the world. In 2022, it was worth £578m to the economy. The total number of staff directly employed in salmon production last year was 1,480, and the industry claims another 10,000 jobs are supported by the sector. It’s a very large fish, so to speak.
But while the industry is hugely important for Scotland’s economy, it has faced fierce criticism over environmental pollution and animal welfare, among other issues. In 2021, for example, The Ferret reported that fish farmers are permitted to use 16 chemicals to kill parasites and fungi, control infections and anaesthetise fish, prompting concerns about the “toxic effects” of the chemicals on wildlife. We also revealed that at least nine million fish had been killed by diseases, botched treatments, poor handling and other problems at salmon farms around Scotland since 2016, according to official data.
High profile critics include television presenter Chris Packham who called for a halt to the “catastrophic“ expansion of the Scottish salmon farming at the end of last year, when fish mortality in farms hit record levels. Last month, a coalition of 54 Scottish businesses, charities, community groups and individuals – including restaurants, vets, scientists, and angling associations – called on the government to commission an independent cost-benefit analysis of the industry. They argued there was a “growing body of evidence demonstrating that the industry causes multiple environmental, welfare and sustainability problems”.

Salmon companies insist that they farm fish sustainably in line with legislation, while creating jobs and wealth for coastal communities.
But what exactly is the industry doing to address environmental and animal welfare issues? Are companies listening to people’s concerns? Can lessons be learned from elsewhere? As part of The Ferret’s Scotland’s Seas in Danger series, we’ve been following the Loch Broom row all year while speaking to fish farmers, critics of the industry and academics researching solutions to problems.

Regardless of which side of the debate you swim on, fish health is a critical issue that can’t be ignored. Last year there were 17.4 million deaths on fish farms, according to the Fish Health Inspectorate, surpassing the previous record of 17.2 million in 2022. Videos taken at fish farms have shown deformed and diseased fish. Last year footage obtained by the charity Wildfish at a farm run by Mowi at Invasion Bay, Ardgour, exposed salmon with damaged or missing eyes, and chunks of flesh missing. Mowi countered that “physical abnormalities” were “very rare” and unrepresentative of its wider fish stocks. Other salmon firms have been in the crosshairs of activists who film covertly at farms to expose problems.
A major blight is sea lice – lepeophtheirus salmonis – which feed on salmon’s skin. They are potentially lethal to the fish. An outbreak affects the growth and welfare of farmed salmon, and threatens the health of wild fish species, while impacting the environment. This year, all these issues have been under scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Islands Committee (RAI) which has been holding an inquiry into salmon farming. Mowi – the country’s largest salmon producer – gave evidence to the RAI recently, along with other firms, and the industry’s trade body, Scottish Salmon. At the hearing, Mowi’s Hadfield and others defended the industry, pointing out the benefits it brings to communities including steady employment in islands suffering depopulation.
Hadfield was also questioned over the row at Loch Broom and ahead of the public meeting in Ullapool, The Ferret visited Corry fish farm and a £20m Mowi site under construction on the shore of Loch Broom called Ardessie. Hadfield insists that Mowi takes people’s concerns seriously, and he rails against anti-fish farm activists, accusing them of exaggerating problems with selective filming which, he claims, misrepresents fish farming. The campaigners argue that they are providing the public with important information about the reality of the industry.

Hadfield says that fish mortality is the fault of climate change, claiming that deaths are due to an unprecedented rise in sea temperatures and jellyfish blooms (substantial growths in population of a species). Jellyfish sting salmons’ eyes, skin and gills, resulting in health problems and death. Warming seas, Hadfield says, mean jellyfish and algae – only previously seen in places such as the English Channel, Bay of Biscay, and the north coast of Portugal – are making their way to more northerly climes which presents challenges for farmed salmon’s gills. Harmful algal blooms can have devastating effects on aquaculture sites and be fatal to fish.
“The mortality that salmon farmers are experiencing is not because of poor production or overstocking – it really is due to environmental conditions in the sea having changed so drastically over the last few years,” he says. “What we’ve seen over the last couple of decades – which is not a long period of time – is that winter temperatures, which used to go down to five or six degrees, now really only go down to eight and nine degrees,” Hadfield adds. “So that’s a two to three degree change in winter temperature on the Scottish west coast which is massive. It’s difficult to explain to people how significant that is for species in that environment.”
His response then, is to find solutions to that issue.
Mowi is now working with Glasgow University academics who are researching the impact of climate change on the sector. In June, the university announced it had been awarded £3m for aquaculture projects including one looking at gill disease in farmed salmon. Leading the research is Professor Martin Llewellyn, of Glasgow University’. “With the gill disease project, we’re essentially trying to improve early warning signals to help people treat earlier and more effectively. We’re basically using environmental DNA which allows us to detect problems nice and early so we can mitigate,” says Llewellyn who stresses he retains academic independence when working with the fish farm industry.
Regarding sea lice, his team is using DNA to detect louse intensity in water columns. “They are very hard to find but DNA can detect them,” Llewellyn explains. “Plankton under a microscope is pretty amazing.”

Stirling University is also researching gill health in salmon. Its project is led by Professor Simon MacKenzie, head of the Institute of Aquaculture, who’s collaborating with a firm called PatoGen and Bakkafrost, a salmon company operating in Scotland but headquartered in the Faroe Islands. This year The Ferret revealed that Bakkafrost was one of three firms who lobbied the Scottish Government to oppose a new safety limit on a pesticide that kills marine wildlife.
MacKenzie says that climate change is impacting ocean environments, and his research is about understanding how animals respond to these conditions. The aim is to improve animal welfare. MacKenzie uses “non-lethal methodology” to get the numbers he needs. “We’re not killing any animals to get the data,” he says. “Essentially it’s just a gill swab. You take the animals out of the water for a moment and take a swab.” The swab, he explains, shows bacteria on gills, providing insight into fish health. This allows farmers to make more informed decisions to protect them. From the data, fish farmers can “tailor management interventions” for their fish populations, he explains.

MacKenzie and colleagues are working with Bakkafrost Scotland’s sampling teams, training its staff how to do non-lethal sampling and sharing experiences. “Essentially they’re doing a lot of sampling for us at the same time. It’s actually very integrated (the partnership) – that’s a very positive aspect,” he adds. Bakkafrost Scotland says partnering with academics is “key” and that it is “committed to developing long-term solutions for emerging challenges resulting from working in a natural environment”.
At a sunny Loch Broom, Hadfield tells me it’s the “right thing to bring in academia and to work hand in hand” with institutes to get mortality levels down. Mowi not only provides money for academic research, he explains, but also gives an “in-kind contribution” to universities in terms of man hours, samples, equipment, boats, and access to farms. In return they get scientific advice.

The Mowi-Glasgow University project will run for five years. New ideas to deal with jellyfish and algae, Hadfield says, include mobile curtains to prevent algae entering farms, identification of blooms using drones, and artificial intelligence to monitor and predict the development of both algae and jellyfish. Less dead fish means less environmental pollution – one of the main concerns aired by locals over the feed barge for Corry fish farm.
That’s a plan now dead in the water, so to speak, following the furore earlier this year. But Hadfield has a new proposal – which is presented at the Ullapool public meeting. It involves feed silos being mounted on pens holding fish at the farm. Hoses attached to the silos spread pellets of food underwater, therefore reducing noise. They are lined with polyester polyurethane, a plastic designed to “resist abrasion” and already used in subsea engineering. This system, Hadfield tells the audience, would see a 92 per cent reduction in the amount of plastic used in comparison to using a feed barge, and it will cost Mowi around double the price of the feed barge which was purchased for £400,000.
If it’s implemented successfully, feed barges could be removed elsewhere in Scotland. The newly proposed feeding system is already operational in Norway, Hadfield explains.

There are more questions, and then a man asks if Mowi would fund a delegation of locals to travel to Norway to see the proposed silo feeding system in action. Hadfield smiles at the audacious request and jokes about the cost of Norwegian beer, and although not committing, he doesn’t rule out such a trip. He encourages people to give feedback and says the firm plans to submit a planning application to Highland Council for the silo system in early 2025. Later, Hadfield says in an email that replacing plastic pipe with stainless steel is now under consideration “to reduce or perhaps eliminate the micro-plastic concerns”.
At time of writing the Loch Broom jury is out.
Scotland’s Seas in Danger is a year-long investigative series by The Ferret that delves into Scotland’s marine environment. Our investigations were carried out with the support of Journalismfund Europe and in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI).

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All images by Angela Catlin
I can’t help feeling that Mr Hadfield is ‘green-washing’ (or whatever the correct term is) – having spent 20 years living near several fish farms, I hear the unofficial reports from those working at them. The quantity of chemicals still being tipped into the water is horrific; the number of fish deaths and the lengths they go to to try and hide them is highly suspect, the fact that nearly all fish farm workers I know won’t eat any farmed fish is most telling. This is tobacco all over again. Mowi might be doing some good stuff, but it is barely scratching the surface of the problem, and it is a relatively small investment for them to keep us focussed away from the bigger picture.