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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
6 4 December - January 2017
T
HE 'BOYCOTT Farmed Salmon at Christmas
campaign' has added the word ‘ORGANIC’ to
its campaign’s name after Fisheries Minister
Creed refused to accept that EU Regulations
require that whenever chemical medicines are
used on organic products “treated stock shall be clearly
identifiable”.
Asked if the limitations on chemical residues in farmed
salmon set by our government and its agencies are ade-
quate to protect health, Dr David Carpenter, Director,
Institute for Health and the Environment at the University
at Albany in the US, wrote in a personal communication
to the 'Boycott Farmed Salmon Campaign' that, “In my
judgement many of them are not”.
Deputy Eamon O’Cuív raised the issue of chemical
treatment of farmed salmon in the Oireachtas last year.
He said that he “will not touch farmed salmon because
it is a totally unnatural product”.
The ‘Wildfish.ie’ website run by the 'Boycott' cam-
paign has published the list of chemicals approved for
organic fish by Marine Harvest, the Norwegian multina
-
tional which produces almost all of Ireland’s ‘organic’
salmon.
16 approved chemicals, many detailed in Village ear
-
lier this year, include the anti-lice medication, Emamectin
benzoate, that has led to worldwide mutation in sea lice
which resist this chemical: a mutation first reported from
Killary Harbour in 2005.
Orally administered in fish
food under veterinary pre
-
scription, it is sold under the
trade name ‘Slice’ to para-
lyse the nervous system of
the ectoparasite sea lice, a
relative of the common head
lice. Long-standing concerns
over this chemical have led
to the banning from the food
chain in the UK of horses
treated with this product.
This biocide has been the mainstay against sea lice since
salmon farms began. Sea lice are now the major biologi-
cal problem facing the industry worldwide. The lice not
only damage fish, leading to secondary infections and
high mortality, but have a free-swimming stage in which
they have been shown to infect wild salmon, reducing
dramatically the numbers which would otherwise return
to their spawning ground. However, a 2015 peer-reviewed
scientific study shows that salmon lice have mutated,
wherever they are found, across the globe in eleven
years to resist this pesticide. It classifies the chemical
as a ‘mutagen’. As resistance was first reported from Ire-
land, the author of the 2005 study, Professor Kevin
Glovers, says that “It is not unthinkable that the origin
of the observed genetic changes was in Ireland”.
Raymond Ellard, the Director of Risk Management and
Regulatory Affairs for the Food and Safety Authority, ini
-
tially told campaigners that: “It is a fair point to make
– that treated stock are to be clearly identifiable”. Inform-
ing the campaigners that he would now consult with the
Marine Institute and the Minister for Agriculture, Ellard
in the end reversed his position, advised the campaign
and the Minister that this actually “was an issue of
record keeping, not labelling of packaging”.
Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed subsequently
claimed that the The Irish Certified Quality Organic
Salmon Standard (which refers to EC Regulation
710/2009 for organic aquaculture production), does not
mean that the treated stock must be clearly identified to
the consumer. The identification required is “solely for
the benefit of the producers to ensure withdrawal peri
-
ods are met”, he told Clare Daly, an Independent TD in a
written Parliamentary reply. “Organic operators meet
this requirement” the Minister told the Deputy, “by main-
taining information at their premises”.
The Boycotters say this makes no sense. Farmed
salmon, they say, “are treated with a range of chemicals
which, while approved by the regulatory authorities, the
consumer may not wish to ingest themselves”.
“The purpose of organic regulations are to ensure con-
sumers can differentiate chemically treated products
from products that have not been chemically treated. If
the public want to support organic production in Ireland,
then they should boycott organic farmed salmon this
Christmas”.
Tony Lowes is a Director of Friends of the Irish
Environment
Boycott campaign derides
organic standards for
farmed salmon
by Tony Lowes
The Regulation does not mean
that the treated stock must
be clearly identified to the
consumer. It is solely for the
benefit of the producers and it is
sufficient if the identification is
clear at producers’ premises
Your chemical
Christmas
ENVIRONMENT
December - January 2017 6 5
Salmon farming at Killary Harbour
