Chris Packham has urged shoppers to boycott Scottish farmed salmon after a record 17 million fish died on farms last year.
The naturalist and president of the RSPCA said that suffering of the farmed fish meant it should be “taken off our tables for good”.
The Scottish aquaculture industry, which is overwhelmingly based on raising Atlantic salmon, has grown to 0.3 per cent of the Scottish economy. The 200-plus fish farms have made salmon the UK’s biggest food export, far ahead of cheddar. Almost all Atlantic salmon sold in UK supermarkets is from fish farms.
However, animal welfare groups have long campaigned against the industry, saying that densely stocked farms cause many fish to suffer unnecessarily from sea lice and diseases.
Last year total mortality
