Investigation into the use of Acoustic Deterrent Devices in fish farms: EIR release

Information requested

You asked a number of technical questions relating to the analysis of data derived from hydrophone surveys of a number of fish farms. Marine Scotland Science wrote a detailed paper on their analysis of this data which answers some of your questions.

1. What ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS undertake of hard drive data evidence to determine the number of Acoustic Deterrent Devices (ADDs) recorded on 29/05/21, 30/05/21, 09/06/21 and 20/06/21?

2. What ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS undertake of hard drive data evidence to determine pre-existing hydrophone calibration settings embedded within the PAMguard Settings file included with the hard drive evidence?

3. As a result of MSS ‘detailed analysis’ and with respect to existing hydrophone calibration settings please provide your estimates of the hydrophones ‘received’ sound levels from ADD sources on 29/05/21, 30/05/21, 09/06/21 and 20/06/21?

4. What efforts did MSC and or MSS make to contact me for updated hydrophone calibration information to aid the investigation?

5. Can MSS/MSC please confirm whether hydrophone calibration data generated by acoustic experts located at St Andrews and Aarhus Universities can be accepted as ‘verifiable’?

6. During ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS try to determine the distance from hydrophone to sound source by either i) utilising the motion tracking module in PAMguard and/or ii) interrogating the recorded GPS position of the hydrophone with respect to known position of ADD units located on the fish farm cages?

7. What other ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS undertake to determine the distance between hydrophone and ADD sound source on 29/05/21, 30/05/21, 09/06/21 and 20/06/21?

8. What detailed and/or acoustic analysis did MSS undertake?

9. Please provide all correspondence (email, letter, phone, text, meeting notes etc) between MSC Compliance, MS Science, MS Compliance ESOA, Police Scotland Wildlife Officers and Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service Wildlife Crime Unit and others relating to this investigation.

10. Please provide specification details of the hydrophone system now being used by MSC and referred to in the notification (flat response, sampling frequency, number of hydrophone elements etc) and methodologies being used to calculate number, sound amplitude and distance of ADDs (or other sound source) being sampled.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

1. What ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS undertake of hard drive data evidence to determine the number of Acoustic Deterrent Devices (ADDs) recorded on 29/05/21, 30/05/21, 09/06/21 and 20/06/21?
Our response –Marine Scotland Science wrote a detailed paper on their analysis of this data which answers some of your questions. Access to this document will be via Objective Connect. This report details the analysis undertaken of the hydrophone data.

2. What ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS undertake of hard drive data evidence to determine pre-existing hydrophone calibration settings embedded within the PAMguard Settings file included with the hard drive evidence?
Our response –Marine Scotland Science wrote a detailed paper on their analysis of this data which answers some of your questions. Access to this document will be via Objective Connect. This report details the analysis undertaken of the hydrophone data.

3. As a result of MSS ‘detailed analysis’ and with respect to existing hydrophone calibration settings please provide your estimates of the hydrophones ‘received’ sound levels from ADD sources on 29/05/21, 30/05/21, 09/06/21 and 20/06/21?
Our response –Marine Scotland Science wrote a detailed paper on their analysis of this data which answers some of your questions. Access to this document will be via Objective Connect. This report details the analysis undertaken of the hydrophone data.

4. What efforts did MSC and or MSS make to contact me for updated hydrophone calibration information to aid the investigation?
Our response - while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. Under the terms of that exception, the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested for the following reasons. You asked Marine Scotland to provide details of the efforts MSC and MSS made to contact yourself regarding hydrophone calibration. Marine Scotland did not contact you regarding the updated calibration information for your hydrophone and therefore we are unable to provide this.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information requested, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

5. Can MSS/MSC please confirm whether hydrophone calibration data generated by acoustic experts located at St Andrews and Aarhus Universities can be accepted as ‘verifiable’?
Our response - While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. Under the terms of that exception, the Scottish

Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested for the following reasons. You asked Marine Scotland to provide information on whether the hydrophone calibration data generated by acoustic experts located at St Andrews and Aarhus Universities can be accepted as ‘verifiable.’ We do not record this information and are therefore unable to provide this.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test.’ Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information requested, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Separate to this EIR, we calibrate hydrophone equipment to ISO 17025 using the National Physical Laboratory. Other institutions may calibrate their equipment differently, we would not make conclusions on this.

6. During ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS try to determine the distance from hydrophone to sound source by either i) utilising the motion tracking module in PAMguard and/or ii) interrogating the recorded GPS position of the hydrophone with respect to known position of ADD units located on the fish farm cages?
Our response –Marine Scotland Science wrote a detailed paper on their analysis of this data which answers some of your questions. Access to this document will be via Objective Connect. This report details the analysis undertaken of the hydrophone data.

7. What other ‘detailed analysis’ did MSS undertake to determine the distance between hydrophone and ADD sound source on 29/05/21, 30/05/21, 09/06/21 and 20/06/21?
Our response –Marine Scotland Science wrote a detailed paper on their analysis of this data which answers some of your questions. Access to this document will be via Objective Connect. This report details the analysis undertaken of the hydrophone data.

8. What detailed and/or acoustic analysis did MSS undertake?
Our response –Marine Scotland Science wrote a detailed paper on their analysis of this data which answers some of your questions. Access to this document will be via Objective Connect. This report details the analysis undertaken of the hydrophone data.

9. Please provide all correspondence (email, letter, phone, text, meeting notes etc) between MSC Compliance, MS Science, MS Compliance ESOA, Police Scotland Wildlife Officers and Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service Wildlife Crime Unit and others relating to this investigation.
Our response – access to the large number of documents will be via Objective Connect.

10. Please provide specification details of the hydrophone system now being used by MSC and referred to in the notification (flat response, sampling frequency, number of hydrophone elements etc) and methodologies being used to calculate number, sound amplitude and distance of ADDs (or other sound source) being sampled.
Our response – access to an email detailing the specifications of the hydrophone used by Marine Scotland Compliance officers during fish farm inspections, titled “ADD Hydrophone meeting notes (redacted).pdf” (contained within the document listing all emails) will be available via Objective Connect.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.