A company accused of illegally burying dead salmons from salmon farming on a Scottish beach has been exposed by the vegan-friendly green power company Ecotricity.
For over a decade, the company Whiteshore Cockles has been burying dead and diseased salmon from fish farms in pits of sand and seaweed on the Scottish Hebridean island of North Uist. This practice was legal due to an exemption from the Scottish Government, and with the understanding that Whiteshore Cockles was building a fish waste dryer that breaks down the many salmons that die in salmon farming with heat — turning them into fish oil and fishmeal. However, the derogation came to an end on the 31st of January 2024. The allegations are that the company continued doing so illegally, as in October 2024, Ecotricity showed the footage of the company still burying salmon four months later to ITV.
The footage from May 2024 allegedly shows lorries tipping huge amounts of salmon into a pit, followed by the dumping of seaweed on top to cover them. Ecotricity told ITV News there were huge concerns about this site already, due to waste spilling onto the beach and a lack of control measures in place, which allows wildlife such as birds and even domestic cats to roam the site.
When ITV reporters confronted Whiteshore Cockles with the footage asking if the burying was still going on, they replied “It’s not happening at all…Our aim is to process all the fish through the plant, the last thing we want to be doing is putting them under the ground like what used to happen historically.” When in October they were asked why the pictures existed from May, they said, “We’re not willing to comment on these pictures just now.” However, the company later admitted it.
The conditions of salmon farms are so horrendous that many salmons die, which in turn creates a body disposal problem.
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