‘It’s betrayal’: Shetland’s scallop fishers brace for arrival of UK’s largest salmon farm

Pens at Scottish Sea Farms’ Linga site. SSF wants to create fewer but larger farms, with the new Fish Holm one holding 6,000 tonnes of salmon. Photograph: Shetland By Drone

At Collafirth, north Shetland, Sydney Johnson is unloading two-dozen bags of scallops by throwing them over his head like medicine balls to the pier above. Johnson, who has just finished a 10-hour shift on his boat, the Golden Shore, is concerned that plans for a new salmon farm will put fishers like him and his two sons out of business.

“They say it’s just one farm,” says Johnson. “But it’s one farm more. There’s only so much water and we’re at saturation point.”