The number of salmon killed by diseases at Scottish fish farms rose to more than 8.5 million last year.
New figures released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) reveal losses from all salmon farms have reached nearly 10 percent of production.
The main problem has been the spread of amoebic gill disease, blamed by some on the warmer seas caused by climate pollution.
In 2012, 13,627 metric tons (MT) of dead fish had to be disposed of by 230 fish farms along the west coast and on the islands, compared with 9717 MT in 2011 and 7159 MT in 2010.
