Publication - FOI/EIR release

Climate change, sea water temperature and regional variations in mortality of farmed salmon: EIR release

Published: 2 September 2024
Directorate: Marine Directorate
Topic: Environment and climate change, Marine and fisheries, Public sector
FOI reference: EIR/202400403358
Date received: 9 March 2024
Date responded: 8 April 2024

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

Please disclose in full detail the “recent analysis of data by the Scottish government” which indicates that regional differences in mortality cannot be explained by temperature alone, that was referred to in the Guardian article.

Please also disclose all other Scottish Government analysis, research and correspondence on the link between climate change, marine heat waves and warming sea temperatures, and variations in mortality of farmed salmon in Scotland, due to increases in gill disease and other diseases, sea lice, harmful algal and jellyfish blooms and depleted dissolved oxygen.

Please include correspondence on these topics with the Chief Veterinary Officer, members of the Farmed Fish Health Framework group and the Scottish Government’s Marine Directive’s climate change policy lead.

Please include the presentation made by the Scottish Government’s Marine Directive’s climate change policy lead to the FFHFG, referred to in the minutes dated October 2033 (excerpt below)

https://www.gov.scot/publications/farmed-fish-health-framework-steering-group-meeting-minutes-26-october-2023/.

Please also include all material related to the causes of regional variations in farmed salmon mortality.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. Please refer to items 1 to 5, items 14-18 and items 21-24 released to you, 14 items in total.

Some of the information (Items 6-13, and item 19) you have requested is available from the following links:

Item 6: Bresnan, E., BakerAustin, C., Campos, C.J.A, Davidson, K., Edwards, M., Hall, A., McKinney, A. and Turner, A.D. (2020) Impacts of climate change on human health, HABs and bathing waters, relavant to the coastal and marine environment around the UK. MCCIP Science Review 2020, 521–545. doi: 10.14465/2020.arc22.hhe
Item 7: Collins, C., Bresnan, E., Brown, L., Falconer, L., Guilder, J., Jones, L., Kennerley, A., Malham, S., Murray, A., & Stanley, M. (2020). Impacts of climate change on aquaculture. (MCCIP Science Review; No. 2020). Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership. https://doi.org/10.14465/2020.arc21.aqu
Item 8: Edwards, M., Atkinson, A., Bresnan, E., Helaouet, P., McQuattersGollup, A., Ostle, C., Pitois, S. and Widdicombe, C. (2020) Plankton, jellyfish and climate in the North-East Atlantic. MCCIP Science Review 2020, 322–353. doi: 10.14465/2020.arc15.plk
Item 9: Bresnan et al 2021 Harmful Algae https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2021.101976
Item 10: 1st IOC Global HAB status report https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000378691
Item 11: Offshore aquaculture of finfish: Big expectations at sea - October 2021 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/raq.12625
Item 12: FFHF Meeting 7-note Farmed fish health: Scotland’s Farmed Fish Health Framework group minutes - October 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Item 13: FFHF Meeting 9-paper 1-progress review Farmed fish health: Scotland's Farmed Fish Health Framework group minutes - January 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Item 19: FFHF climate change -review of aquaculture climate change Adaptation and response is available at https://www.seafish.org/insight-and-research/current-and-future-trends-impactingthe-uk-seafood-industry/climate-change-impacts-and-adaptation/

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exceptions under regulation 10(4)(d) (material in course of completion, unfinished documents or incomplete data) and regulation 11(2) (applicant has asked for personal data of a third party) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Additional information provided out with the EIRs

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) we would like to advise you that although not directly relevant to your specific questions, some additional information which you may find useful is publicly available on the Scottish Government website. In particular, the results and reports associated with aquatic animal health surveillance undertaken by the Marine Directorate’s Fish Health Inspectorate: Publication of Fish Health Inspectorate information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), along with reports of mortality from industry stakeholders: Fish Health Inspectorate: mortality information - gov.scot(www.gov.scot), as agreed through the Healthier Fish Working Group. These two data sets are subject to proactive publication, which occurs on a monthly basis one month in arrears, and in the case of the
FHI surveillance data, following the closure of specific cases. Likely of interest given the questions asked, a beta version of a shiny application is currently under development, additional work is required prior to publication (planned for 2024), this will include an update of the predictive model outlined in Moriarty et al 2020 (item 1).

The Scottish Government publishes responses to requests for information made under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 - Publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Some historical requests may be useful to you, although again they are not directly relevant to your specific questions, they relate to the subject of your request: EIR 202300376448 and EIR 202300372264 relate to jellyfish and fish farms - https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202300376448/; https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202300372264/.

Searching the Scottish Government publications page for the terminology ‘mortality’ and selecting publication type ‘FOI/EIR release’ provides links to a number of historical requests relating to fish farm mortalities.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Exceptions apply

Regulation 10(4)(d) – material in course of completion, unfinished documents or incomplete data

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to some of the information you have requested; Specifically item 20, “Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science (SMFS) Vol XX No XX - A review of aquatic climate change science” because it is material which is still in the course of completion. This report will provide a review of recent work across Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate on climate change related topics. This includes a brief section relating to the impacts of climate change on aquaculture. The report is anticipated to be published by the end of 2024.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and this will be met by our planned publication by the end of December 2024. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished or incomplete information which is still in being worked on is not disclosed when it might misinform the public or give a misleading impression of the Government’s view or position on the matter to which the information relates.

Regulation 11(2) – applicant has asked for personal data of a third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

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.