Scottish Smoked Salmon is off the Menu

Scrambled Eggs with Scottish Smoked Salmon has been a breakfast menu favourite with The Lint Mill guests since opening in 2012. I review our menu annually and check that our suppliers are still meeting the high ethical and organic standards that we set for ourselves. In recent years there has been a crisis in the Scottish salmon industry which has led to a Parliamentary inquiry into salmon farming and the impact it has had on the wild salmon population.

A bit of background: years ago, we could enjoy wild caught Atlantic salmon coming up the rivers in Scotland and Scottish salmon was a widely sought after gourmet product, famous throughout the world. Unfortunately, our unlimited demand for salmon forced us to start farming it and now we have big industries to match our enormous demand for what was once a special delicacy. It is now believed that poorly run and badly sited open net farms are putting our wild salmon and wild sea trout at risk from parasites (sea lice) and diseases.

So, here at The Lint Mill, we have decided that will no longer buy farmed salmon to serve to our guests until the industry has taken more action to resolve the environmental problems it currently faces.

Sadly, Wild Atlantic Salmon is on the brink of becoming an endangered species in our lifetime and it is no longer possible to buy Scottish wild fish. Wild salmon can only be sold if it is caught and killed at strictly regulated netting stations. In 2018 the last netting station in Angus, Scotland, which once caught around 1,700 salmon a year, closed on conservation grounds because wild salmon numbers have fallen so low there are so few fish left to catch.

We have considered wild Alaskan smoked salmon, which is a highly regulated environmentally conscious product and wild sea trout during its short season from 1st June to 31st August but the jury’s still out in terms of whether it makes it on to our breakfast menu.

Meanwhile, we think the most exciting and responsible thing we can do is to produce a new, delicious breakfast menu for the 2019 season. There are still some lovely ethical Scottish fish options and some tasty new additions. You can find it here and we very much hope you like it.

You can read more about the Scottish Salmon Industry here: https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/107585.aspx