06
Aug
Scottish Fish Farm Industry, Major U.S. Importer, Delays Restrictions on Hazardous Pesticide
(Beyond Pesticides, August 6, 2024) Factory fish farming companies sinched a win in Scotland in July after the Scottish government announced it would not put forward restrictions on emamectin (aka emamectin benzoate)—a toxic pesticide used to kill parasitic sea lice that also kills various nontarget marine life up and down the trophic ladder—until 2028. As reported over many years by The Ferret, an independent journalism cooperative based in Scotland, seafood corporations lobbied the Scottish government in a multiyear campaign to weaken environmental protection standards to advance their economic interests. Health and environmental advocates in the United States acknowledge the parallels of agribusiness, pesticide manufacturers, and their allies in undermining science-based policy and continue to call for intercontinental coordination on organic principles and standards that would render the use of toxic pesticides like emamectin obsolete.
Emamectin benzoate is a derivative of avermectin, a family of macrocyclic lactone compounds often used as the primary active ingredient in insecticides targeting parasites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers emamectin benzoate a restricted-use pesticide that is toxic to fish, mammals, and aquatic organisms. Avermectins act as poisons to the nervous system of target pests, stimulating the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system (a chemical “transmitter†produced at nerve endings). ManageSafe™ identifies ants, cockroaches, and tree-boring caterpillars as primary targets for residential use of this type of insecticide, given that the result of using avermectins on pests begins with paralysis and eventual death after a handful of days. Studies gathered in the Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database category find avermectins linked to adverse reproductive, neurological, and developmental effects for humans, as well as toxicity to bees and aquatic life.
Scotland and Farm-Raised Fish Lobby
Rob Edwards, investigative journalist and co-founder of The Ferret, lays out a succinct timeline of the Scottish government’s increasingly lax approach to regulating seafood corporations operating farms in Scotland—leading up to this most recent decision.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) identified the ecosystem threat emamectin posed in 2016:
- Usage of emamectin at Scottish Fish Farms: “It is of note that between 2002 and 2015 the amount of biomass in Scottish fish farms has doubled whereas the total mass of emamectin benzoate used in Scottish fish farms has increased sixfold over the same period.â€
- Bioaccumulation: “The data suggest that emamectin benzoate remains in the tissues of marine organisms for an extended period (>90 days)… The metabolism and depuration rate [speed at which the pesticide is excreted from the body] is slow in fish.â€
- Toxicity for Saltwater Organisms: The most sensitive species to both acute and chronic exposure to emamectin is the mysid shrimp (Americamysis bahia). At the lower end of the trophic pyramid, many crustaceous organisms rely on mysid shrimp as their primary food source.
- Toxicity for Freshwater Organisms: The most sensitive species to both acute and chronic exposure is the water flea (Daphnia magna) and the most sensitive taxa are crustaceans.
Despite their analysis of the potential threats to ecosystem health, SEPA abandoned its proposed policy to ban the use of emamectin back in 2017, opting instead for an interim limit of allowable levels of the chemical in marine sediments. The limit in its original format only applied to new fish farms or existing farms that wanted to increase emamectin use, which did not apply to most of the nation’s 200 salmon farms at the time. However, as Mr. Edwards reported, “Between 2017 and 2023 the limit was raised three times following a series of interventions by the industry, ending up at 272 ng/kg – 23 times higher than SEPA’s initial limit.†This slow but persistent weakening of the restrictions came amid significant lobbying from Salmon Scotland, the trade association representing Mowi, Bakkafrost, and Scottish Sea Farms—three multinational salmon farming companies that operate in Scotland. Farmed-raise salmon products from Mowi and Bakkafrost are sold in U.S. supermarkets and direct-to-consumer. The same year that this limit was introduced a scientific study published by the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum found that emamectin “could reduce the number of crustaceans near salmon farms by 83%.â€
In a previous Daily News, Farmed Salmon during Covid-19 Pandemic Subject to Increased Pesticide Use in Scotland, it was noted that SEPA at the time relaxed rules on both emamectin and azamethiphos to support salmon farms that were suffering due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. The legacy of this ongoing regulatory failure is a cautionary tale not only to consumers who are subjected to these products and nontarget fish and wildlife that involuntarily consume these toxic chemicals, but to regulators and elected officials who fail to meet the moment in establishing strong standards in service of public health and environmental protections.
“The separation of corporations and public institutions are crucial to ensuring that peer-reviewed, independent science guides policy rather than skewed conclusions that pad profit margins,†says Max Sano, organic program associate at Beyond Pesticides. See Daily News, Environmental and Trade Groups Successfully Call for End to Pesticide Company Alliance with UN-FAO, to learn about the legacy of CropLife International (trade organization for pesticide manufacturers) and its member companies—BASF, Syngenta, and Bayer-Monsanto—and the ways in which they directly influence regulatory and scientific analysis at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and various national regulatory bodies.
Fish Farming and Pesticide Resistance
So what is emamectin benzoate? Emamectin, or emamectin benzoate, is a commonly used pesticide used to treat sea lice contamination in fish populations in farm settings. There have been notable examples in recent years of litigation against fish farm companies, including against Canada-based Northern Harvest Sea Farms in 2018 in response to charges stemming from the off-label use of Salmosan 50 WP (the organophosphate azamethiphos) added to its operations to combat severe sea lice outbreaks the previous year. The company was fined just $12,000 for violating the Pesticides Control Act in New Brunswick. One month after this court ruling, Norwegian seafood conglomerate Mowi (then-called Marine Harvest) acquired the company. Parasitic salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) are already growing resistant to emamectin benzoate, as discovered in a 2022 study published in Scientific Reports based on data gathered from Pacific Ocean open-net fish farms. This builds on existing research published in Conservation Letters that parasitic lice found in both wild and farm-raised salmon had high rates of resistance.
[Please see the Daily News sections on resistance and emamectin to learn more about the sprawling and adverse health impacts associated with overreliance on toxic chemicals across various sectors of the food economy.]
Seafood and Organic Standards
Currently, there are no standards for allowable or prohibited inputs for “organic-certified†seafood products under organic regulations in the U.S. that distinguish from the existing standards for livestock production, which must be followed for any animal or product sold with the USDA organic certification seal.
During the Obama Administration, there was a push to develop standards for aquaculture (see Beyond Pesticides’ comments on the development of organic aquaculture standards), but this did not move forward. During that same period, the Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service under that administration pushed for loosening of restrictions for fish farming in federal waters. The U.S. allows for the importation of organic certified seafood from other countries that have their own standards. For example, the Canadian General Standards Board released the final version of the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard, a voluntary private third-party label, in 2012. One of the central controversies with the standard is that it allows fish from open pen systems (net pens), where fish are managed in a netted enclosure in an open body of water, to be certified as organic. Another controversy in that standard is an allowable use of parasiticides under veterinary supervision. The European Union Organic Aquaculture standard, which went into force in 2010, establishes a baseline standard for aquaculture products across the 27 member states. Although EU only produces 1.3% of global aquaculture products, the organic aquaculture market has exploded in recent years with 56% growth between 2012 and 2020, signaling interest across the continent to develop more stringent standards. See Organic Aquaculture in the EU: Current Situation, Drivers, Barriers, Potential for Growth, a European Commission-led report published in 2022, for more information.
Until the National Organics Standards Board (NOSB) installs official guidelines for organic aquaculture, U.S. consumers will continue to rely on imports from other nations that may or may not follow standards necessary to preserve trust in the organic label. See Beyond Pesticides recommendations to the National Organics Standards Board in 2014 Spring Meeting for further details on what organic aquaculture could look like pending strict criteria. See Keeping Organic Strong to learn more about how to engage in the public consultation and comment period process ahead of the fall 2024 meeting with further information available to you in the coming months.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: The Ferret
