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According to Animal Equality UK, Scottish salmon farms recorded 35 million unexpected fish deaths over a three-year period in which they received just two unannounced inspections.
Animal Equality described this lack of oversight as “embarrassingly poor,” and also highlighted the losses, repeated disease outbreaks, infestations, and other “high-profile scandals” that Scotland’s salmon farming industry has been dogged by.
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Scotland’s Animal and Plant Agency (APHA) is responsible for enforcing welfare legislation and carrying out fish farm inspections, which are a legislative requirement. It carried out zero unannounced inspections in 2023 or 2025, and just two in 2024.
According to a freedom of information request (FOI) made by Animal Equality, APHA inspected 21 out of 213 Scottish salmon farms between 2023 and 2025. In the same period, the industry recorded 35,867,788 deaths, and Animal Equality noted that the number of deaths is likely much higher due to “significant reporting loopholes.”
For example, fish that are culled, killed during transportation, or die during their first six weeks at sea are excluded from the official death count. “Cleanerfish,” which have a beneficial symbiotic relationship with salmon and eat lice and other parasites, are not included in the total deaths at all. Animal Equality estimated that at least seven million cleanerfish have died on Scottish farms since 2020.
Over 1.3 million fish culled in one week
Animal Equality discovered that more than six million fish were reported dead in onshore hatcheries in 2024, a record high for the industry.
Applecross Hatchery in Wester Ross, in particular, has reported more than nine million fish deaths since 2022. According to a separate FOI, the hatchery once culled over 1.3 million fish in a single week. Applecross has also notably received up to £5 million in public money and has been praised for its “fish health and welfare.”
None of the 20 worst-performing sites in Scotland, which together account for more than 10 million deaths over three years, received inspections at all. According to Animal Equality, APHA refused to disclose its inspection report forms and stated that releasing the information would “likely result in significant detriment to the companies, negatively impacting their ability to conduct business, manage their reputation, and their ability to protect their business.”
APHA also stated that it does not hold any information on the number of unannounced inspections conducted each year.
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‘A complete overhaul of the regulatory system is essential’
During Scottish Parliamentary oral questions in December last year, Ariane Burgess, an MSP and member of the Scottish Green Party, questioned the lack of industry transparency on mass mortality events, including the “real” number of fish deaths.
Mairi Gougeon, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, said: “I emphasize that we have a really robust regulatory regime when it comes to fin-fish aquaculture.”
Animal Equality investigations previously uncovered heavily lice-infested salmon seemingly abandoned at a Bakkafrost site that had been falsely declared fallow. Aquaculture is essentially a form of factory farming, and nearly 25 percent of active salmon farms are thought to be in breach of industry lice codes at any one time.
A separate investigation exposed workers beating fish to death at a farm on the Isle of Skye. Animal Equality noted that the industry has underreported its antibiotic use by 66 percent, and that Scottish Sea Farms’ Barcaldine was found to have illegally discharged formaldehyde and bronopol into lochs for 117 consecutive days.
“A complete overhaul of the regulatory system is essential,” said Abigail Penny, the executive director of Animal Equality UK. “This low level of scrutiny is embarrassingly poor. How can the Cabinet Secretary claim regulation is robust when inspections and sanctions are virtually non-existent? It makes a mockery of the system. Regulators appear far more focused on protecting industry reputation than protecting animals.”
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