News / Salmon farm awarded damages after oil spill
SHETLAND salmon farming and processing company Hjaltland Seafarms has this week been awarded damages of more than £35,000, five years after the coastguard tug Anglian Sovereign run aground off Scalloway spilling diesel into the sea.
As a reaction to the accident the company suspended feeding and harvesting salmon from three of their fish farms in the area for a period of three days.
The Anglian Sovereign hit rocks at Balta Skerry, off the uninhabited island of Oxna, on 3 September 2005, fracturing her fuel tank and spilling around 84 tonnes of marine diesel fuel into the environment.
The incident was a huge embarrassment for the Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) which had deployed the tug, operated Klyne Marine Services Ltd, to prevent pollution incidents such as this.
Skipper Peter Leask later admitted having been three times over the legal limit and was jailed for eight months in March 2006.
Yesterday (Friday), Hjaltland Seafarms managing director Michael Stark said he was “really pleased” with the outcome of the civil court case.
Lerwick Sheriff Court awarded Hjaltland a total of £25,120.71, made up of £24,020.71 for compensating loss of profit, £200 for extra management time and £900 for cleaning equipment.
Sheriff Graeme Napier also ruled that eight percent interest should be paid the almost five year long period. A decision on who is to pay for legal expenses is still awaited.
A spokesman for Klyne Marine Services declined to comment on the case adding that it was being dealt with by their insurance underwriters.
The case originally concluded at the end of March this year but Klyne appealed, an action they later abandoned.
Mr Stark meanwhile emphasised the significance of the verdict as it set a precedent for offshore seawater aquaculture producers.
“When the incident happened five years ago, we followed advice from Shetland Aquaculture, the Food Standards Agency and other bodies, and took the precaution of suspending feeding and harvesting in the vicinity for a three-day period.
“What this case establishes for the industry in relation to future oil spills and any consequent suspension of feeding, is that the suspension of feeding is a recognised and appropriate course of action for the industry to take and one which is a foreseeable consequence of an oil spill.
“Furthermore, the case establishes that it is natural and foreseeable that any feeding suspension will result in a reduction in growth of the affected fish and that that loss of growth can never be made up during the life cycle of those fish,” he said.
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