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15/10/2026

🚨 These are sea lice. Parasitic crustaceans that target salmonids, the family of fish that includes Atlantic salmon and sea trout.

Millions infest open-net salmon farms and disperse into surrounding waters, where they attach to wild fish and progressively eat their skin and mucus to lethal effect.

A recent modelling study commissioned by WildFish demonstrates that sea lice from Scotland’s salmon farms merge, overlap and spread across tens of kilometres, creating a cumulative threat to wild salmon along their migration routes.

This means during a single migration, wild salmon can encounter parasites from multiple farms. For young fish, even a few sea lice can be deadly and mean they never reach the open ocean to feed and mature to adults.

With global wild Atlantic salmon populations in continued freefall, this cannot continue.

➡️ The Scottish Government must back wild salmon recovery and take urgent action to implement stronger regulations and address the harmful impacts of salmon farms on wild fish populations. A robust regulatory system, capable of assessing sea lice as a cumulative regional problem, not simply a site-specific one, must be implemented without further delay.

In the meantime, planning authorities should not consent to the development of new salmon farms or the expansion of existing sites.

At WildFish, we are committed to exposing the environmental harm caused by open‑net salmon farming and campaigning for meaningful evidence-led change that protects wild fish and their habitats.

Read the full sea lice report on our website 🔗 https://wildfish.org/latest-news/planning-system-ignores-salmon-farms-cumulative-risk-to-wild-fish/.

14/10/2026

New documentary takes aim at Scottish salmon farming and highlights the ways in which consumers are being misled.

Gaslit, a new documentary from Project Slingshot, is raising national awareness about the negative impacts of salmon farming. 📣

From WildFish’s perspective, the most shocking aspect of this industry is its devastating impact on wild salmon.

In freefall, UK populations of wild Atlantic salmon continue to collapse. Salmon farming across the Highlands and islands of Scotland is recognised as a major driver of these declines in wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout populations.

Millions of farmed fish escape from salmon farms. These escaped fish breed with and dilute wild salmon genetics, tragically reducing their fitness to survive. Alongside this, disease, pollution and parasitic sea lice spread from open-net sea cages into the path of passing wild salmon.

WildFish has campaigned for many years against the misleading claims of the salmon farming industry. It is encouraging to see more groups, local communities, and concerned consumers speak out against farmed salmon.

Raising awareness and keeping the public informed is key to putting a halt to the continued expansion of this industry. Safeguarding our wild salmon populations depends on it. ✊

Watch the documentary via Project Slingshot. 🎥

Subscribe today to WildFish's newsletter and get the latest updates on important issues like this one straight to your inbox 🔗 https://wildfish.org/ .

13/10/2026

🚨 A new investigation reveals that a scheme designed to penalise companies when farmed salmon escape is wholly controlled by the salmon farm industry itself - a major step backwards for wild salmon conservation.

Launched earlier this year, Salmon Interactions Association Ltd will see salmon farmers pay into a conservation fund when farmed fish escape.

However, a new investigation from The Ferret has revealed the association is wholly controlled by the industry, with industry body Salmon Scotland holding a controlling interest. The scheme itself also has fundamental limitations: it is not compulsory, and penalties are capped at £50,000.

WildFish Scotland Director Nick Underdown explains:

"Farmed salmon escapes should be a public environmental offence. It should never have been outsourced to a voluntary arrangement controlled by the industry responsible for the pollution."

❗ Farmed salmon have been selectively bred to grow rapidly for a short life in captivity, while wild salmon have adapted over thousands of years to survive in specific rivers and make long migrations. When the two breed, those domesticated genes enter wild populations, weakening the vital adaptations wild fish need to survive.

➡️ The responsibility for dealing with the environmental damage of farmed salmon escapes belongs with government and regulators. The government must act so that regulation is not left to voluntary arrangements controlled by the industry responsible for the pollution.

Source: The Ferret

12/10/2026

🚨 Farmed salmon DNA found in 56.8% of wild salmon sampled in Wester Ross and Skye.

A recent Scottish Government study tested nearly 6,700 wild salmon across Scotland to map the spread of farmed salmon genetic pollution in wild salmon populations.

What do we mean by genetic pollution? ➡️

When farmed salmon breed with wild salmon, their offspring have reduced genetic fitness and are less able to survive in the wild and adapt to environmental change.

Wild salmon sampled closer to salmon farms were the worst affected by genetic pollution, including those in Wester Ross and Skye, a major hotspot of Scotland's salmon farming industry.

The region has around 40 salmon farms and commercial hatcheries, mostly operated by four multinational companies: MOWI, Bakkafrost P/F, Scottish Sea Farms Ltd and Loch Duart Salmon.

Norwegian-owned Mowi was responsible for the largest reported escape in 2025, when 75,000 farmed salmon entered Loch Linnhe from its Gorsten farm.

💬 Nick Underdown, WildFish Scotland Director, said:

“The findings of this study represent a complete failure of successive governments to address the problem of salmon farm escapes and this slow-burn crisis for wild salmon.

We urge The Scottish Government to halt the expansion of the salmon farming industry, which is currently developing new sites across the country without effective regulation and enforcement.”

Source: ICES Journal of Marine Science

08/10/2026

97% of UK rivers are no longer connected, preventing wild fish from reaching vital spawning, refuge and feeding grounds.

Join Jim and add your name to WildFish’s handraiser, calling on UK governments to take urgent action to reconnect our rivers for wild fish. 🐟

You can add your name too by visiting https://act.wildfish.org/page/191721/subscribe/1?ea.tracking.id=Facebook.

When barriers are removed, fish return and rivers recover.

Together, we can send a message to decision makers and regulators that there is strong support for reconnecting our rivers and saving wild fish.

07/10/2026

🚨 A third of all salmon in Scotland’s salmon farms died before harvest in 2025.

The latest Scottish Government figures expose the scale of mortality in Scotland's salmon farming industry. But the damage extends far beyond farms, to our endangered wild salmon populations.

❗ Disease, pollution and parasitic sea lice spread from open-net sea cages into the waters that wild fish depend on, while escaped farmed salmon interbreed with wild populations, further weakening their ability to adapt to environmental change.

➡️ Nick Underdown, WildFish Scotland Director, said:

"Year after year, these figures document the tragic and short-sighted industrial-scale exploitation of our precious coastal waters.

The direction of The Scottish Government policy remains fundamentally wrong. Ministers continue to drive the expansion of open-net salmon farming while our wild salmon populations are collapsing.

The Scottish Government should stop measuring success by how many tonnes of farmed salmon companies like MOWI and Bakkafrost P/F can produce and start measuring the damage this industry leaves behind.

We need an immediate halt to further expansion of open-net salmon farming, much stronger regulation and enforcement of existing farms, and a clear plan to transition away from salmon farming altogether.”

Subscribe today and get the latest updates on important issues like this one straight to your inbox 🔗 https://wildfish.org/ .

Source: The Herald

06/10/2026

“Reckless” Environmental Delivery Plans are a risk to rivers and wild fish. 🚨

We need your help. The government has introduced a scheme that could see developers pay a fee to get around environmental protections. Meanwhile, our rivers and wild fish pay the price.

The first of these so-called Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs), launched by Natural England, has been published in draft for Norfolk and will reportedly help to deliver 15,780 new homes in an area renowned for its rare and sensitive chalk streams and wetlands. 🐟

This scale of development would produce an enormous increase in the amount of sewage requiring treatment. It would also lead to increased demand for water - pressures for which the EDP has no answers.

In reality, this scheme sets up a pay-to-pollute system, one which will let damaging development be fast-tracked without proper environmental protections in place.

The draft EDP for Norfolk is now in a consultation period, and we are being asked for our views.

Follow the link 🔗 https://act.wildfish.org/page/201780/action/1 to respond today.

With our pre-populated form, it takes less than a minute.

05/10/2026

Over 60,000 artificial barriers fragment UK rivers, trapping wild fish and preventing them from moving freely. 🐟

Join Lizzie Daly Wild and add your name to WildFish’s handraiser, calling on the government to take urgent action to reconnect our rivers for wild fish.

You can add your name too by visiting https://act.wildfish.org/page/191721/subscribe/1?ea.tracking.id=Facebook.

Barrier removal has the potential to make a noticeable difference to wild fish recovery. Together, let’s reconnect our rivers.

01/10/2026

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