Production up, employment down at Shetland’s salmon farms, per government survey
Production is up but employment down at Shetland’s salmon farms, according to the government’s annual survey published this morning (Tuesday).
Anti-salmon farming campaigners have also seized on a decrease in survival rates to roughly 60 per cent. The industry dismissed these figures as out of date.
Farms in Shetland produced more eggs, baby fish (smolts) and adult salmon in 2024 than the year before. Total harvest volumes were up more than a quarter, netting Shetland’s two main companies — Cooke Aquaculture Scotland and Scottish Sea Farms — more than £29 million.
Employment numbers, however, have dipped — from 312 employees isles-wide in 2023, to 267 last year.
Asked about the figures, chief executive of industry group Salmon Scotland said the production bump demonstrates “the incredible hard work of our farmers and the growing demand for our highly nutritious fish”.
He did not respond to the dip in employment numbers in Shetland, but added: “With sales of the UK’s most popular fish increasing at home, and exports approaching £1 billion, we sustain thousands of rural jobs and enable coastal communities to thrive.”
Some anti-salmon farming campaigners seized on survival figures from the same survey, which states that almost two out of every five fish put to sea in Shetland died before reaching harvest in 2024.
The survey describes a gradual decrease in survival rates in the past three years but at 66.5 per cent still puts the isles ahead of the Scottish average of 61.8 per cent.
Don Staniford, a particularly vocal activist, said the figures from Shetland and further south show that “salmon farming is dead in the warming waters of Scotland”.
Salmon Scotland blamed the percentages on issues with jellyfish in 2022, when most of the fish harvested last year were put out in sea pens.
“While salmon face natural challenges in the sea like any fish, our farmers also uphold the highest animal welfare standards anywhere in the world and have invested more than £1 billion in new tech, leading to significantly improved survival rates in 2024 and 2025.”
More recent data reported by Salmon Scotland suggests unexpected fish deaths reached less than one per cent across Scotland in the first half of this year, though those figures no not include culls.