FOI/19/00168 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Information relating to specimens of possible non-native Cyprinid species: EIR release
Information requested
You asked for information relating to several specimens of a non-native Cyprinid species found in Loch Finnart. Specifically you asked if these specimens had been retained by the Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory, if they had subsequently been identified as any type of Cyprinid species or hybrid thereof, and if they are still available for further analyses.
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
I can confirm that two fish from Loch Finnart were received from Gordon Brown, the first in August 2016 and the second in September 2017. Both were small fish of around 170 mm in length. Marine Scotland Science identified both as cyprinids, the first as likely to be a rudd or roach-rudd hydrid, and the second was tentatively identified as a rudd. Both fish have been retained in deep-freeze at the Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory and would be available for appropriate further analyses. It is our intention to dissect out the pharangeal bones which should aid in making a definitive identification, but we have not done so yet.
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Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Enquiry Unit Email: ceu@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrews House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.
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