Fish health
How clean is
CleanTreat?
Benchmark’s new lice treatment has come under fire already, but the company is confident that it will prove to be safe
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enchmark’s CleanTreat® is set to become one of aquaculture’s big talking points for the year. On one hand, it is being hailed as a game-changer – not just as a poten�ally successful product for the company but also as a powerful weapon in the salmon farmers’ war against sea lice. On the other, cri�cs fear that if the system is nodded through by regulators, it could prove catastrophic for the marine environment. The European Parliament’s Environment Commi�ee has already passed a mo�on condemning it. So who’s right? The point at issue is not CleanTreat itself but the sea lice treatment that it uses. CleanTreat itself is a water purifica�on system that allows fish to be treated with types of medicine – or pes�cide, if you will – that cannot be used in open water. Benchmark has been trialling the system in conjunc�on with its new sea lice solu�on, BMK08, which it says has been shown to be highly effec�ve against lice, without causing any ill effects for the fish. The treatment was
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CleanTreat.indd 40
originally marketed as Ectosan and, now, as BMK08. It is based, however, on an established, effec�ve and once commonly used insec�cide: imidacloprid. The trouble is, imidacloprid is one of the substances classed as neonico�noids, which became infamous when campaigners linked widespread use of these pes�cides to a collapse in bee popula�ons. An�-fish farming campaigner Don Staniford, of Sco�sh Salmon Watch, said in a complaint to the European Parliament’s Environment Commi�ee: “Benchmark has patently failed to inform shareholders, investors, the public, the stock exchange and the media that BMK08/Ectosan is in fact the banned neonico�noid imidacloprid.” Imidacloprid has indeed been banned – but not completely. At one �me it was the most widely used insec�cide in the world. Like other neonico�noids, it is a systemic toxin that acts on the central nervous system of insects and arthropods. Dave Goulson, a biology professor at Sussex University, talking to the Guardian (27 May 2021) put it this way: “These chemicals are incredibly poisonous – the novichok for insects. It takes a billionth of a gram to harm aqua�c life, so even �ny traces would have major impacts on marine life.” In April 2018 the European Union resolved to ban outdoor use of the three main neonico�noids, including imidacloprid. They con�nue to be used, quite lawfully, in enclosed greenhouses and also as flea and �ck treatments for cats and dogs. As the la�er suggests, neonico�noids are deemed to be quite safe up to a certain dose for vertebrates, including humans and our pets. A spokesperson for Benchmark told Fish Farmer: “BMK08 has been proven to be safe for salmonids and the medicine will always be administered in a closed contained system; and it will be exclusively used with the award-winning and validated CleanTreat® purifica�on system to remove the medicine before release of purified water back into the sea”. The company’s confidence that the treatment is safe for salmonids is, it says, based on extensive field trials carried out in Norway. The spokesperson added: “We have made significant progress towards commercialisa�on of our new sea lice solu�on, BMK08 and CleanTreat®, our first customer agreements for CleanTreat® have been signed and EU ra�fica�on of the
Below: Benchmark’s CleanTreat vessel Opposite: CleanTreat processing tanks
www.fishfarmermagazine.com
07/06/2021 16:02:43
