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Marine Harvest, one of the biggest producers of farmed salmon in Canada, has announced plans to protect stock in their Canadian fish cages by surrounding their farms with anti-predator nets.
These nets will stop seals and other predators attacking the salmon and eliminate the need to shoot and kill the animals.
This announcement comes only days after an international coalition of animal welfare and marine conservation groups called on the American Government to ban the important of salmon from countries, including Scotland and Canada, where farmers are allowed to kill marine mammals. The U.S Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits the intentional killing of marine mammals in commercial fishing operations, including fish farms.
John Robins of the Scottish charity Save Our Seals Fund, which was part of the coalition, said; “For decades we have been trying to get Marine Harvest and other companies with salmon farms in Scotland to install exclusion nets to keep seals and other predators away from the salmon. Instead of backing our call the Scottish Government gave the fish farmer’s licenses to shoot nearly 1,300 seals a year. This could be the breakthrough we need. If Scottish fish farmers want to maintain access to the lucrative market in the United States they are going to have to follow the lead of Canadian salmon farmers and give up the cheap option of shooting seals and install and maintain proper anti-predator nets instead. If they can do it in Canada they can do it in Scotland."
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