Number of wrasse imported for use in salmon farms: EIR release

Information requested

Following our response to your previous request (EIR 202400415581 – concerning ‘cleaner fish and the aquaculture industry’) you responded with a supplementary question asking for ‘the number of wrasse and lumpsuckers imported to the UK for use in salmon farms, by year’.

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.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore, we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), 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 because we do not hold ‘UK import data’ – the Scottish Government does not have the responsibility for imports of cleaner fish at the UK level.

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 about UK imports of cleaner fish, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

What we do hold is information relating to imports relevant to Scotland and we have provided this data to you in the attached spreadsheet. This dates back to 2011 which is our first record relating to the import of cleaner fish into Scotland. The information is broken down by year, species (wrasse or lumpfish) and by stage of the animals imported. A definition of the stages referred to is given alongside the information released.

I should highlight that the information provided to you includes imports which go directly onto hatchery and on-growing sites as well as those going directly to salmon farms. In particular, cleaner fish of the stages ‘OVA’ and ‘LVG’ will be destined for hatchery or on-growing, whereas imports of the stage ‘MVG’ tend to end up directly on salmon farms, although sometimes these can also go to hatchery and ongrowing sites. The main purpose behind these imports is for use on salmon farm sites as a biological control measure for parasites (sea lice).

Should you wish to obtain further information, beyond imports into Scotland, and relevant to the remainder of the UK then please contact the Fish Health Inspectorate for England and Wales (Cefas - Fish Health Inspectorate - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) and the Aquaculture & Fish Health Inspectorate for Northern Ireland (Fish health and fish health inspections | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk)). They may be able to help you further.

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.

EIR 202400420186 - Information released - Annex

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Excel document

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