Pesticides from 12 salmon farms have contaminated lochs around Scotland’s coast in breach of safety limits, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).
Environmental monitoring by Sepa, the government watchdog, over the last three years has discovered high levels of toxic chemicals in sediments from the Firth of Lorn, the Isle of Lewis, the northwest Highlands and Shetland. Fish farmers use the chemicals to kill the lice that eat away at salmon.
By far the worst pollution was found in Loch Shell on the east of Lewis near a fish farm operated by the Norwegian-owned company, Marine Harvest.
There, levels of a pesticide called teflubenzuron were up to 455 times higher than Sepa’s environmental quality standards in 2012……
Hearld Scotland 05/05/2013 Read the article ‘ Pesticides from salmon farms poison Scotland’s lochs’
