Hans J Marter

16 February, 2007

ACCUSATIONS in the national press that organically farmed cod are being held in "horrifying conditions" were yesterday dismissed as "ill informed" by the company behind the venture.

The Evening Standard and Channel 4 News reported that a government adviser on organic food, as well as the Soil Association, were concerned about the amount of lighting being used in cod farming.

Johnson Seafarms refuted the allegations yesterday (Thursday) saying the Evening Standard had not done its homework and had even failed to contact the company.

And the Soil Association's aquaculture development officer Peter Bridson said the comments made by the organisation's former chairman Lawrence Woodward did not represent the organisation's position.

Managing director Karol Rzepkowski said had the Evening Standard contacted him he would have been able to tell them that the use of light was an approved method by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

In the story, Catherine Fookes, a member of the government's advisory board on organic food, is quoted as saying that she had three "grave concerns".

"The first is the continuous use of light and what effect this has on animal welfare. The second is the effect this has on the flora and fauna around in the sea, and the third is the effect on carbon emissions from powering the lights," she said.

Light on the cages is being used to create the impression of a never-ending summer, which prevents the fish from maturing and spawning.

Mr Rzepkowski said: "The Evening Standard story is sensationalised. It is a pity that no one from the paper has ever contacted us. They got a story second hand and then changed it in the way they wished. It is a pity.

"We are using light for one reason only, and that is because it is recommended by the RSPCA for welfare reasons. The RSPCA has carried out a three year study with us looking into cod maturation and spawning, and the impact on farmed cod welfare."

Yesterday, the RSPCA's senior scientific officer, John Avizienius confirmed Mr Rzepkowski's claim.

He said: "Currently there appears to be relatively little knowledge about the effect of these extended lighting patterns on the welfare of the fish, but in some cases there appears to be potential welfare advantages.

"For example, providing artificial lighting in sea enclosures can reduce early maturation and the concomitant physiological stresses associated with such a process."

He added: "The RSPCA will be conducting more detailed investigations into this issue, but in the interim, we are satisfied that having viewed cod at sea sites using cold cathode ray lights, we could not see any evidence of the lighting compromising the welfare of the fish, whereas when we viewed fish who had not been subjected to a lighting regime, the evidence suggested that the welfare of these fish had been compromised due to the maturation process."

He said that should new evidence come to light indicating that the welfare of the fish is being compromised by the use of prolonged lighting patterns, then the RSPCA would not allow them to be used within their own standards when they are developed.

Mr Rzepkowski said: "If we would have done something wrong I would have been the first person to raise my hand and admit it. But we have not!

"Being criticised on fish welfare reasons for doing this in an ill informed argument is confusing consumers with scare stories.

"You are ending up misinforming consumers, and they get fed up not knowing what is the right thing to do because they don't know who is telling the truth."

He said their operation in numerous cod farms around the Shetland coast were accredited by the Organic Food Federation (OFF) under the UK Defra organic standards for cod.

"The problem with the Soil Association is that they are now also confusing the consumer. They seem to want to create some sort of gold organic standard. If the Soil Association has an issue with something they feel is not organic, they should go back to Defra and speak to all the other 14 organic accreditation bodies, "Mr Rzepkowski added.

But Mr Bridson, of the Soil Association's Scotland office, said the comments printed in the Evening Standard were the private opinion of Mr Woodward who is an organic farm researcher who has "no real experience and knowledge" with aquaculture.

He said it was correct that the Soil Association had not accredited cod farming because "we could not accept the lighting as organic".

"We looked into cod in detail and worked with Johnson Seafarms to study what they were doing. We knew exactly what was going on on the farm. We went through the process of developing a standard for cod but came to the issue of the usage of lighting to control maturation, and that is something we don't allow for farmed salmon and therefore we could accept it for cod either," he said.