I believe the new format Marine Scotland has adopted for the presentation of the 2009 salmon and sea trout fishery statistics leaves much to be desired. It is almost entirely devoid of any significant information, extending only to a meagre four pages for each species. For instance, it is no longer possible to clearly follow the relentless and continuing decline in wild salmonid numbers in the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland, wrought by the impact of factory fish farm sea lice upon wild stocks migrating from and returning to their rivers of origin.

The new format may seem equivocal to some observers, and I include myself in that number. They might conclude, rightly or wrongly, that it could be a questionable attempt by Marine Scotland to disguise from public view the full extent of the catastrophe that these fish farms have visited upon or marine and freshwater environment – and upon the animals and humans who depend on the environment for their sustenance. How might the public access the information now absent from these fishery statistics?