Bakkafrost Scotland's bid to ban activist is postponed

A hearing to decide whether anti-salmon farming activist Don Staniford should be barred from property belonging to Bakkafrost Scotland has been postponed.

The case was due to be heard today at Dunoon Sheriff Court but has been rescheduled for December 23.

The delay means that Staniford’s application for leave for a second appeal against a ban on him trespassing on salmon farmer Mowi’s pens or shore bases is now likely to be heard first. That hearing is likely to happen in November.

Mowi has a perpetual interdict (injunction) against Staniford that was granted by Sheriff Andrew Berry in Oban last year and was partially altered but upheld by appeal court judges earlier this year. Berry had been listed to hear the Bakkafrost case today but is understood to have recused himself because of his involvement in the Mowi case.

Undertaking to the court

Along with restrictions imposed by the Mowi interdict, Staniford has also given an undertaking to a court that he won’t visit Scottish Sea Farms’ sites until that company’s application for an interdict against him is heard. That case has been sisted (postponed) until the second appeal against the Mowi interdict is heard.

Bakkafrost had sisted its own application for an interdict against Staniford but has reactivated the case in the light of unauthorised visits made by the activist to its farms during the summer.

In a letter to Staniford’s solicitors, R & R Urquhart, of Forres, Moray, on September 20, Bakkafrost’s legal representatives Shepherd and Wedderburn, cited several instances of Staniford on Bakkafrost property. Each of the incidents, which took place from June to September this year, was recorded and broadcast on social media by Staniford.

Perpetual interdict

“Our client was reasonably apprehensive that Mr Staniford would focus his attention on its sites given the perpetual interdict obtained by Mowi Scotland, and the undertaking that Mr Staniford gave to the court in Scottish Sea Farms’ case,” wrote Shepherd and Wedderburn.

The law firm added that it was clear that Bakkafrost's apprehension was correct.

Staniford’s modus operandi is to visit pens early in the morning, before farm technicians have arrived for work to remove any salmon that have died overnight and are floating on or near the surface. The activist uses a Go-Pro camera on a long pole to make underwater videos of dead or moribund salmon for use on social media. He also visits shore bases at night to open and film inside mort bins to reveal what he says is the hidden truth behind the industry.