Shetland scallop fishers fight back against uk’s largest salmon farm approval

Traditional fishing families in Scotland’s Shetland Islands are facing what they call a “betrayal” as the UK’s largest salmon farm receives approval, threatening generations of sustainable scallop fishing in the region’s pristine waters.

At Collafirth in north Shetland, veteran fisher Sydney Johnson hauls two dozen bags of freshly caught scallops onto the pier after another grueling 10-hour shift aboard his boat, the Golden Shore. But Johnson and his two sons, who work alongside him in the family business, now worry their livelihoods may soon disappear. The massive new salmon farming operation, owned by Norwegian company Scottish Sea Farms, has received the green light despite fierce opposition from local fishing communities and environmental groups.

“They say it’s just one farm,” Johnson explains, his frustration evident. “But it’s one farm more. There’s only so much water and we’re at saturation point.” His concerns reflect broader anxieties about the environmental impact of industrial fish farming, which critics argue can pollute coastal waters, spread disease to wild fish populations, and disrupt marine ecosystems that traditional fishers depend on.

The approval highlights a growing tension between Scotland’s push to expand its lucrative salmon farming industry and the need to protect both marine environments and traditional fishing communities. For families like the Johnsons, who have worked these waters for generations using sustainable methods, the industrial-scale salmon farm represents not just an economic threat, but the potential end of a way of life that has sustained Shetland communities for centuries.