Department denies it suppressed ‘flawed’ report

The Department of Agriculture has described as “flawed” a report from the 1990s which warned about the negative effect of fish farms on wild sea trout and, furthermore, denied ever trying to “suppress” it.

The report had been commissioned in 1994 by the Department of the Marine.

It had warned until the exact nature of the relationship between sea lice and sea trout was understood, “a precautionary approach dictates that it would be prudent to avoid siting new fish farms or increased salmon farm production — within 20km of a sea trout river mouth”.