Escape of 80,000 salmon in February 2023: EIR release

Information requested

Questions about the escape of 80,000 salmon February 2023:

• What size/age were the escaped salmon please?
• What company owned the salmon?
• Where were the salmon being moved from and where along the route did they escape?
• How/why did they escape?

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 we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(a) (Information not held) applies.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs, the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested because the location of the fish escapes event cannot be confirmed due to insufficient information available, and it is not therefore possible to determine where along the route the escape took place.

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 the specific location where this escapes event occurred, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Questions about the escape of 80,000 salmon February 2023:

• What size/age were the escaped salmon?

(These were salmon smolts)
Average weight: 100g
Age in months: 12 months

• What company owned the salmon?

Cooke Scotland

• Where were the salmon being moved from and where along the route did they escape?

The fish originated from Loch Shin and were loaded at Lochinver.

• How/why did they escape?

A hatch of the transport vessel was left unsecured due to human error. The transporter involved in the escape incident has taken remedial action to avoid similar events in future.

About FOI

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