Marine pen fish farming: Charging changes

This proposal will fund the introduction of a national monitoring programme that will assess the interactions between sea lice and wild salmonids.  Initially this programme of monitoring will trial our approach and we expect it to progressively evolve in its design over the next few years.  

Currently the industry funds work on sea lice/wild salmonid interactions via requirements imposed by planning conditions. These programmes of work are focused upon particular sites and it is not easy to gain access the resultant data.  

The new monitoring programme will be designed to provide the information that Scotland needs to support our sea lice Framework and the Government’s Wild Salmon Strategy. We intend to make the information that is collected publicly available.  

We are confident that this proposal will fund an enhanced monitoring programme which will provide the information required in a more efficient and transparent manner.