Regular reporting

That means deep, cold sea lochs and seas with fast-flowing, well-oxygenated waters and strong currents. But it also means dealing with the different challenges that the marine environment can present.

Below, you’ll find details of how we are performing with regards to the key challenge of sea lice, as well as our record on fish survival.

Sea lice occur naturally in the marine environment and affect both wild and farmed salmon.

Whilst we can’t stop sea lice from occurring, it is our responsibility as farmers to do everything we can to help keep levels to a minimum.

Recent years have seen us invest on a multi-million pound scale in new sea lice controls – the majority of them non-medicinal – with encouraging results at many of our farms.

Weekly reporting 

We report sea lice figures, based on the number of average females, on a weekly basis, one week in arrears, to Marine Scotland’s Fish Health Inspectorate.

You can view this data via two separate sources:

• aquaculture.scotland.gov.uk
  A website designed to provide a single point of access to data on Scottish aquaculture, held by the sector’s regulators
• salmonscotland.co.uk
  The membership body for Scotland’s salmon farmers.

Whilst our driving force is the health, welfare and survivability of our stocks, every animal population experiences a level of mortalities.

Wild salmon is now thought to have an average survival rate of less than five per cent due to the challenges of the natural environment; challenges that can also affect farmed salmon.

However with attentive fish husbandry and responsive health management, we’re now seeing average end of crop survival rates of 89.7% (2024) and above amongst farmed stocks – our five-year average fish survival being 87.4% – and we’re not resting there.

With each new crop of fish, we’re looking for the lessons learned in order to increase our understanding, reduce fish mortalities and further enhance the survival rates of future crops.

We’re also sharing these same insights at sector level, as members of Scotland’s 10 Year Farmed Fish Health Framework.

Monthly reporting

For many years now, Scotland’s salmon farmers have reported survival rates to Marine Scotland. In 2018, we took the decision to voluntarily publish these rates publicly, making Scottish salmon the first farming sector in the UK to provide this level of transparency.

We report fish survival on a monthly basis, once month in arrears, and you can view this data in two ways via two different organisations:

• Monthly mortality as a % of total population per farm
  salmonscotland.co.uk
• Monthly mortality in biomass per farm
  aquaculture.scotland.gov.uk

When losses rise

Our policy is to remove dead fish every day, unless the weather makes it unsafe. Every loss is recorded.

Our survival figures count every kind of loss, except fish we cull.

If losses at a farm go above set thresholds, we report them to the Fish Health Inspectorate and the RSPCA, along with the cause. For fish over 750 g, the thresholds are 1% of the population in a week or 4% over five weeks. For smaller fish, they’re 1.5% and 6%. Every one of these events is investigated and gets an action plan, as our RSPCA certification requires.

Salmon Scotland’s monthly reports also give the reason behind any loss above these thresholds. Causes are grouped as gill health, bacterial disease, viral disease, smolt transfer, environmental and jellyfish, in line with the Scottish Government’s Farmed Fish Health Framework.