What studies it has conducted of the impact on the freshwater salmon fishing industry of the open cage salmon farming industry in Scotland.

Research funded by Scottish Government has identified 12 high level pressures impacting on salmon in our waters and further afield, and aquaculture is recognised as one component of these pressures. https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/fishreform/licence/status/Pressures
Whilst there are currently no studies from Scotland that have directly assessed the effects of open cage salmon aquaculture on the freshwater salmon fishing industry (angling), studies have been conducted on the potential effects of aquaculture on wild Atlantic salmon populations more generally. This includes studies ofdifferences in the trends shown by rod catches in the west coast aquaculture zone compared to the rest of Scotland ( https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2008.1600 ; https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00515729.pdf ).the potential impacts of fish farm disease on wild salmon populations ( https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jfd.12654 )the effects of fish farm escapes on genetic introgression through the National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland ( https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/Freshwater/Monitoring/ElectrofishingProgramme/GeneticSampling ) and other targeted local sampling near fish farms.the impact of coastal sea lice from aquaculture on wild salmon populations using anti-lice treatment/ release studies on contrasting east and west coast rivers, the latter having a greater aquaculture influence ( http://www.sarf.org.uk/SARFSP010%20Feb2019.pdf ).