How many inspections of fish farms were undertaken by Marine Scotland to verify the use of non-lethal measures to deter grey and common sea…

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 does not require Scottish ministers to have regard to any information about non-lethal measures in relation to licences granted under section 110(1)(f).
In respect of the single application in relation to fish farms under section 110(1)(g), Marine Scotland undertook no inspections specifically for this purpose.
Marine Scotland did however, take account of available information on non-lethal measures before granting a licence in consideration of all licences under sections 110(1)(f) and 110(1)(g).
This included the fact that almost all fish farms seeking a seal licence already employ at least one and many a number of non-lethal measures. The non-lethal measure that is generally accepted to be most effective against seals is tensioned nets and almost all fish farms have such nets installed. In addition to this, almost half of fish farms use acoustic deterrents, a third seal blinds and a fifth anti-predator nets. There are a range of views on the effectiveness of these other measures but none have entirely eliminated the risk of seal predation.