North Moine (Port na Moine) fish farm site: EIR release

Information requested

"Information concerning the North Moine (Port na Moine) fish farm site operated by Mowi and/or Kames since 1 January 2020. Within your request, you made specific reference to both Mowi and Kames in terms of the operation of the fish farm site and requested ‘any information including emails, letters, ownership details, photos and any other details"

Your request was originally considered on a Scottish Government wide basis, but in discussion with you, and in accordance with our requirement under Regulation 9 (Duty to provide advice and assistance) of the EIRs, it was subsequently agreed to limit the scope of the request to information held within the Marine Scotland Directorate of Scottish Government.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I attach a copy of some of the information you have requested. This includes, but is not limited to, emails and documents concerning:

• The holding of broodstock and authorisation of the North Moine Fish Farm site
• Results relating to sampling for veterinary medicines residues and the collection of samples for the same
• Proposed treatment of the fish farm site
• Seal licence relating to the fish farm site

In addition, the following information is extracted from documentations held within Marine Scotland where their scope or focus is wider than simply ‘North Moine’. This includes information contained within some email communications between Kames Fish Farming and Marine Scotland Licensing and Operations Team, relating to the use of Acoustic Deterrent Devices (ADDs) and European Protected Species (EPS) licensing and confirming that such devices used in relation to the North Moine fish farm site, are done so at an appropriate level not to cause injury or disturbance and thereby concluding that an EPS licence is not required.

Further information concerning North Moine in relation to this subject area is provided in the table below. This information has been extracted from a document detailing site specific modelling in relation to the use of ADDs on fish farm sites operated by Kames Fish Farming Ltd. 

			Below threshold (permitted)		Above threshold (permitted)
farm	location	Zone and permitted area	SPL and radius	Sea area	SPL and redius	Sea area
North Moine (FS/0356)	56o 9.338N 5o 32.113W	Zone G 2.98 km	181 dB 2154 m	1.63 km2	n/a*	n/a

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exceptions under the regulations apply. Further details are provided below.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

In addition, an exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to a small amount of information relating to this request. This concerns an email discussion relating to some of the information obtained through the aquatic animal disease surveillance programme. For clarity purposes, the actual information to which the discussion relates has been released through proactive publication, but the discussion surrounding it has been withheld on the basis that this represents an unresolved query and issue which is effectively live. 

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some public interest in the release of information which details the opinions, thought processes and actions of officials working within the Scottish Government, however, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting the space for such discussions to take place and reach an appropriate conclusion before being considered for release. 

A draft version of a document entitled ‘Fish Health Risk Assessment for the Holding of Brood Stock on Port Na Moine North’ has also been withheld under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs - material which is still in the course of completion / unfinished documents. This has been withheld as it is a draft version of a completed document which has been released through this response.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some public interest in the release of unfinished material and draft documents, however, this is outweighed by the public interest in withholding information which may present an inaccurate representation of a specific situation. In this case, a completed version of the document has been released.

Some of the information you have requested is available from publicly available information sources including:

Details and outcomes of aquatic animal health surveillance: https://www.gov.scot/collections/publication-of-fish-health-inspectorate-information/

Previous responses to FoI requests: https://www.gov.scot/publications/

Scotland’s Aquaculture website: http://aquaculture.scotland.gov.uk/

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

For your information, and with reference to your request specifying both Mowi and Kames operating the North Moine fish farm site, I can confirm with you that an agreement in place between these two companies permits Kames Fish Farming Ltd to operate and run the North Moine site for their own business interests, although the site is authorised to Mowi Scotland Ltd.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.