The first time I peered into the cage of a fish farm, as a child, my overriding impression was one of horror at seeing so many fish crammed together in one place with nowhere to go for their entire lifespan. I remember worrying that they would keep bumping into each other, unable, like wild shoals, to keep swimming in one direction.
Of course, I was making the mistake of putting myself in the salmon's place and coming to the conclusion that I would much rather be a free salmon than a caged one. Although I realise now that we cannot think such fishy thoughts, just as fish cannot think in human terms, there has always remained a nagging doubt that fish farming is just battery chicken farming in water, and potentially just as cruel.
Why is it, for example, that people get more worked up about the inhumane testing being carried out on monkeys than they do about pulling the legs off a daddy longlegs? The reason is, presumably, because insects have a nervous system which is not nearly so highly developed as that of a monkey, and therefore suffer less.
All vertebrates can be placed roughly on this scale of sophistication. Chickens, according to some scientists, come higher on the scale than salmon, although this hierarchical placing is open also to debate. But, if we accept this premise, can we therefore presume that fish do not feel as much as chickens? And just how much is "not as much"?
Lloyd Medway was grappling with this problem back in 1980 when he brought out the Medway report on shooting and angling. On the question of whether or not animals feel pain, the report found the evidence inconclusive. It noted that it was impossible to prove beyond question that any vertebrate other than man could feel pain, for man was the only one that said: "Ouch." But the report added that, if you accepted that one species of vertebrates did feel pain, you had to accept that all vertebrates felt pain to some extent.
Stress is, however, a more intangible thing than pain. Can fish suffer stress? Some studies have been carried out in the Netherlands which show that, in angling, retaining fish in a keep net will cause the animal more stress than the actual hooking because of the motivation to flee and the release of alarm substances within the fish, particularly under crowded conditions.
Clearly, fish are susceptible to quite a range of feelings and one of these is fear. Dr Tom Pottinger, of the Freshwater Biological Association in Windermere, says: "A lot of procedures that fish are exposed to under intensive aquaculture conditions are inherently stressful. There are various physiological perimeters you can monitor in order to tell if fish are stressed hormonal and haematological factors which indicate that the non-specific stress response which is common to all vertebrates has been activated."
But the scientific world and salmon farmers are agreed that the consequences of stress show up in reduced growth rate, interference with the reproductive system and susceptibility to disease.
Any producer will be alert to such signs, but not so much out of the concern for the welfare of his fish. Net profits will be uppermost in his mind. All producers confuse the loss of production through mortality and damage from disease with welfare.
Despite the observance of industry guidelines for overcrowding, skin disease is rife among Scottish farmed salmon stock. Skin disease is known to be engendered by stress, and more stress can in turn be engendered by other skin irritants, such as lice.
We know also that the problem of lice is much greater in a sea cage than in the wild. The problem of lice can be, and is, treated. Dr Jim Buchanan, of the Scottish Salmon Growers Association, says: "If fish could smile, I would say they are smiling after their delousing treatment you can really see from their behaviour that they are happy." But what does this say about their condition before treatment?
Talk of happy and sad fish will inevitably bring shrieks of derision from the sceptics, who will no doubt bracket me along with those who claim that when you pick a daffodil it screams. The only point I am making is that animals are to some extent at the disposal of man, with the rider that what we do with them must be strictly humane and not detrimental to their quality of life.
Salmon farming is a handy line of business for those who live near the remote bays and lochs of Scotland. But is it cruel? And is it a caring industry that calls itself salmon growers, as if the fish were a crop like wheat?
Doubtless we can quote Salar the Salmon, Henry Williamson's book following the perils of life as a wild salmon, to find reasons to show that a farmed salmon, safe in a cage, is much better off. But, if I were a salmon, I know which option I would choose.
