Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2013

2 Escapes, and obtaining samples, from fish farms

(1) The Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007 is amended in accordance with this section.

(2) In section 5 (inspections: containment and escape of fish)—

(a) in subsection (2), after paragraph (b) insert—

“(ba) ascertaining the origin of fish known or believed to have escaped from the fish farm or any other fish farm,”,

(b) in subsection (3), in paragraph (a), after “equipment” insert “, fish or material from fish”.

(3) After section 5 insert—

“Sampling

5A Obtaining samples from fish farms

(1) An inspector may take samples of fish, or material from fish, on a fish farm for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (3).

(2) An inspector may require a person who carries on a business of fish farming to provide the inspector with samples of fish, or material from fish, on the fish farm for a purpose mentioned in subsection (3).

(3) The purposes are—

(a) assisting any investigations into escapes of fish from fish farms that may require to be carried out,

(b) analysing the samples mentioned in subsections (1) and (2) for scientific or other research,

(c) assessing the impact of—

(i) the operations of fish farms on the environment,

(ii) escapes of fish from fish farms on stocks of fish other than those on fish farms, and

(d) developing methods of tracing the origins of fish that escape from fish farms.

(4) This section is without prejudice to sections 4B and 5.”.