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    TELEGRAPH 19 MAY 2011 Pollution from fish farms 'as bad as sewage' By Charles Clover, Environment Editor 12:00AM BST 19 Sep 2000 FISH farms discharge more nutrient pollution than Scotland's human population, according to a report published yesterday. The nitrogen and phosphorus discharged from Scotland's 350 marine salmon farms, whose salmon are fed on fish meal pellets, pose a risk to fish, mammals, shellfish and other wildlife in what were until recently pristine waters, says the report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The report by Malcolm MacGarvin, an independent ecologist, uses new criteria used by Ospar, the intergovernmental body for the North East Atlantic, to calculate the extent of pollution. This year, salmon farms will produce 7,500 tons of nitrogen, equivalent to the annual sewage from 3.2 million people, and 1,240 tons of phosphorus, comparable to sewage from 9.4 million people. The ecological result is effectively greater than the sewage produced by Scotland's 5.1 million humans. Nutrients stimulate plant growth and contribute to toxic algal blooms, thought to be a factor in amnesic shellfish poisoning, a disease which led to the widespread closure of scallop farms this summer. Algal blooms may be toxic to wild fish larvae and marine mammals, such as porpoises and seals, according to the report. It also kills caged salmon on salmon farms. Excessive nutrients have contributed to the decline of eel grass beds, a habitat which has declined by more than 80 per cent, and is home to unusual species such as the pipefish, says the report. It follows a report for the Scottish Executive by Aberdeen Marine Laboratory, which said it had yet to prove that nutrients from fish farms were responsible for toxic algal blooms. These could occur naturally. Related Articles Dr MacGarvin said: "The evidence available shows that you can't simply dismiss the impact of nutrient pollution from fish farming. To dismiss it out of hand is to ignore the science." Sea lice from fish farms are blamed by many scientists, including the chief scientist of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, for contributing to the disastrous decline of sea trout and salmon stocks off the west coast of Scotland.