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With Scottish parliamentary committee salmon farm inquiry coming to an end last week and its report due out soon, there’s plenty to watch in the world of salmon. A court decision last week, however, has estabilished a shift in how the activists who have made it their business to observe salmon farms may have to conduct themselves.

Don Staniford, sometimes dubbed "the kayak vigilante" lost his final appeal against an interdict lodged against him by Norwegian-owned salmon farmer MOWI. I’ve been following his story since I went to the Isle of Ulva to shadow his surveillance of a Bakkafrost salmon farm, where a mass mortality event was unfolding.

Staniford is now banned from the pens of salmon farms, and it looks possible he will ultimately be excluded from doing the on-farm GoPro filming that has been a key part of his campaigning more widely. Last week’s decision means that he is permanently banned from kayaking up to MOWI salmon farm pens and getting on the cages.

For salmon farmers, this represents a victory - and many on social media have argued that this is self-evidently justified as a trespassing issue, Following the decision the Norway-owned salmon farm operator said it would continue to protect its employees and property from people who seek to “follow in the footsteps” of the activist.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” said Staniford. “It sets a dangerous precedent - and will have a chilling effect.”

(Image: Scamon Scotland)

But what does it mean for Staniford, and for other activists, snooping citizen scientists and even........

© Herald Scotland