SIFT focuses on the challenges of sustainably managing wild capture fisheries in Scottish inshore waters. So we generally do not campaign on the salmon aquaculture sector, despite the many problems it presents for Scottish inshore waters. The exceptions to this are our work on the wrasse fishery (which is driven by demand for wrasse from salmon farms) and the work we have undertaken, with Wildfish, on establishing the economic impacts of the salmon farming sector.
(Photo credit: Corin Smith)
The true economic impacts of salmon aquaculture
In 2025 SIFT and Wildfish published an independent report by two leading analysts, that cast new light on the accuracy of the salmon farming sector’s and the Scottish Government’s estimates of the economic impacts of Scottish salmon farming.
The report Assessing the Economic Impact of Salmon Farming in Skye & Lochalsh – which uses Skye and Lochalsh as a case study – shows that the salmon farming sector and the government overplay the economic benefits and downplay the costs of the sector, by focussing on its gross rather than net effects and by disregarding counterfactuals.
Jobs
The report also provides the first estimates of the scale of jobs lost in other sectors as a result of salmon farming. In Skye and Lochalsh, the report estimates that approximately 137 people work in the sector, some 2% of the local workforce. However, the report estimates that the negative impacts of salmon farming have cost between 12 and 38 jobs locally in other sectors, including in mussel farming, creeling and marine tourism, all of which impose markedly lower environmental costs on the marine environment than open cage salmon farming. It is also notable that across Scotland as a whole (local statistics are not available), official statistics show that in the decade to 2025 salmon farming production jobs themselves have declined.
Tax credits and grants
The multinational corporations which own most of Scotland’s salmon farms also receive substantial UK tax credits and grants, with reported figures showing that in some years some of these firms receive more than they pay in tax. Moreover, the sector requires extensive government oversight, which is funded from the public purse, even while salmon farms pay no local business rates.
Profit leakage
The report also notes that host communities are not guaranteed to receive a share of locally-generated profits. The foreign-owned salmon farmers operating in Scotland, often declare their profits and pay dividends out of Scotland. Equally, any corporation tax receipts flow to the UK Treasury and not to Scotland. This echoes the Griggs Review of Aquaculture carried out for the Scottish Government, which was largely supportive of the industry but when considering community benefits paid by salmon farmers argued that “comparisons should be drawn with the wind farm industry where local communities receive a ‘share of the benefits’ that companies make from a local operation”.
The way forward
SIFT believes that, at the very least, this industry should now be required to pay its way and make a fair contribution to the parts of Scotland where its harmful effects are most widespread. There is also an urgent need for an independent and objective Scotland-wide economic analysis of this sector so that the true national impact on the economy can be understood. Until this happens, there should be a moratorium on further state hand-outs and new planning approvals.
