"I spent my hour yesterday outside Waitrose in Caversham and found the time passed much too quickly, so I did about 75 minutes. Spoke to around 40 people of whom all took a poster. 20 plus wanted to know more. 2 couples, both middle aged, said they preferred not to know!

Longer conversations, including a retired hydraulics engineer whose company had supplied pumps to the salmon farming industry about six or seven years ago - neither he nor his family now "fancied" the product.

Another couple who asked what more they could do to help - I suggested a dinner party to tell their friends; and a woman who was appalled and was obviously very alive to the environmental hazards of all non-organic farming methods.

Several couples in their 30s/40s were surprised that the product itself might be a hazard to health.

Police appreciated forewarning, but I did not speak to the store manager and they ignored me. I was on public property not in their car park.

What next? Look forward to hearing more in due course." Richard, Reading

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"Handed out all the leaflets on Saturday in glorious sunshine and met a lot of people sympathetic to the cause, together with a great deal of farmed salmon eaters who will definitely be thinking twice. What is our next course of action to keep the groundswell moving?" Angus, Dundee

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" I have today been handing out the leaflets and talking to people at the Golden Hill branch of Tesco here in Bristol. I was surprised by the number of people that knew of the problems with farmed salmon.

A lot of people are not buying fresh salmon but prefer tinned salmon. However despite mentioning our contact with Tesco CEO, I was eventually politely asked to leave. I am expecting a call after he has been in touch with his Area Manager!

I still have a lot of leaflets and intend to deliver these around my area. I am extremely upset that the S &T Association along with AST are not taking a more effective interest in the problem." Alfred, Bristol

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"Hello friends, an educational event was held at noon today, October 26th, in front of a major US grocery store to support the fish farm campaign conducted on this same day, in Scotland and UK.

A half dozen folks were holding colorful signs and handing out leaflets to interested shoppers on the sidewalk near Costco Grocery Store, in Bellingham, Washington. Many folks driving by gave thumbs up.

Within 15-20 minutes, however, the store management came out and threatened to call the police. The group lingered longer to take photos and distribute leaflets about wild/farmed salmon, while discussing citizenry's constitutional right to free speech.

Photos will be posted tomorrow and we hope to hear of additional reports of activities in other US communities, as we link our efforts in this global campaign to educate the public and policy makers about the hazards of industrial salmon farming. Cheers, Anne." (Go Wild Consumer Campaign/Aquaculture Reform Project, Bellingham, Washington, USA)

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"Done, leaflets/posters distributed outside M&S in Dover town centre, no reaction from store.

I had only about 5 refusals, plus about the same again from people who didn't take one on the grounds that they wouldn't buy farmed salmon anyway, and agreed with me, which was a little bit of encouragement. I suppose.

Around ten people asked me more about it, and I was able to explain a bit more re the effluent discharge and damage to shellfish populations, as well as wild salmonids. My wife who was with me coined the phrase "pink poison" - could we do something with that in the future?

What's next? I saw the letter in FFFT from the chap who thinks we're wasting our time. I'm not sure we were, people are a lot more fussy about what they eat, and the environment these days, and I think a more sustained consumer targeted campaign might do some good.

Also targeting supermarket chains, pointing out to people the hypocrisy of their position, when they make capital out of being "green" as regards recycling, organic foods etc, yet still support this filthy business. Put me down for any follow up action that I can manage on two walking sticks!" Richard, Dover

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"Myself and my son-in-law did Aberystwyth Safeway on Saturday morning, handing out over 100 leaflets (got extra ones printed in colour and B&W). We were dressed in our full fishing regalia, waders, fly vest, hat etc. without any hassle from the supermarket! Took photo on my disposable fishing camera (as digital had a flat battery) and will send you a copy once it's developed. All the best." Mike and Justyn, Aberystwyth

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"Most of the people we spoke to were on the ball about the issue. People wanted to be able to tell the difference between wild and farmed salmon. Those in the age group 30/60yrs were best informed." Jackie, Inverness

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"A very good day here in London. The M&S management almost had apoplexy as

We were parked smack bang in the main street - all mouths agape from the passing buses and cars etc. I had placards and signs prepared so the store security staff were sniffing us like hungry hounds and M&S had hand-outs prepared counteracting our pitch but no matter. Final Score. M&S 0, Our Lot 6. Great campaign!" Rod, Ealing

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"Very successful morning. Many encouraging comments from shoppers. Well done!" Roger, Killarney

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"Susan did Safeways in Kirkwall and I manned the town centre of Stromness, attracting considerable attention and encouragement." Colin, Orkney

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"It is l.l2pm and I have come home even though I said would be protesting to l.3Opm. I ran out of posters! People were incredibly kind and, with two exceptions, everyone went away reading the posters.

I have been amazed at how "clued up" such a lot of people were. I have had folks tell me about the disgraceful conditions the salmon are kept in, where to buy wild line caught Pacific salmon, and much general disgust on the apathetic Government that lets such things carry on.

It has been a pleasure to help. Avalanches often start small and grow big, here's to your avalanche!" Simon, Pershore

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"Went very well today. Lots of people already know about this after watching it on

TV. Started at Tesco and after a while security asked us to leave but, when I dug my heels in and told them it would be worth getting arrested for the publicity, they changed tack and told us in private that the police wouldn't do anything to stop us so it wasn't worth calling them, therefore letting us get on with it.

Moved on to Asda, and after a while onto Marks and Spencer in the centre of town. No hassle with either of them and a good response from many customers. Went into a health food shop and met a Canadian woman on holiday who came to give us a hand (apparently they have the same problems over there).

One or two teachers took material for school which was a bit of a result and generally pretty successful. About three quarters of your fliers went so good job we had more. Finished at about 5pm when most shoppers where starting to go home.

Only one cock up, called a well-dressed character 'Sir' it was only a woman! She was a bit frosty. We will be happy to help in any way possible in future." Tim, Kate, Cameron and Alice, York

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"Just a note to let you know how I got on. I visited 3 stores Iceland, Safeway and Marks and Spencer in Newport, IOW. Most customers were happy to take leaflet and many asked for more information.

After I explained what was happening, they all said that they would not buy farmed salmon. Many of the people I spoke to were already aware that farmed salmon was causing problems.

I also asked each shop to pass on a leaflet to the store manager. I was quite surprised that the stores did not ask me to leave." Steve, Isle of Wight

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"I have distributed about 75% of the leaflets. I will hand out the remainder tomorrow afternoon. A few people knew of the event, and took more than one leaflet to give to friends who are interested. All seemed to be sympathetic. No reaction from the staff at Safeway's St. Andrews.

One person commented that many people now buy salmon and smoked salmon, and most of them are indiscriminating and eat rubbish most of the time - and therefore won't notice the difference if they could buy wild fish. And they won't pay for the difference.

This same person said that if salmon farming went out of business, poaching would flourish. He fished; so I said if salmon farming is not subjected to better controls, soon he'd have no wild salmon to fish for! But he wouldn't listen to another point of view - perhaps just being argumentative. In his case it was heads he's right and tails you're wrong!" Ian, St Andrews

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" I was impressed at the public's awareness of the implications for wild fish from the impact of salmon farming. I hope that that the Salmon Farm Protest Group will build on this success." Mark, Perth

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"Just a quick note to update you on the 26th. As my friend was covering a couple of sites in Oxford, I handed out my posters at Waitrose in Thame.

The Manager had received a briefing pack with a release from 'Scottish Quality Salmon', and was a little "anti" at first. However after a chat he got his staff to offer me cups of tea whilst I handed out the leaflets! Let me know if I can help again in any way." Jack, Oxford

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"All went well, staff at Tesco were very helpful and the security manager was expecting me. The day manager was sympathetic, being a fisherman. Several enquiries about where wild salmon can be purchased, tinned wild salmon, shellfish and so on. I had an enjoyable morning. Here's hoping it did some good and that the fish farmers will change their ways." John, Bury

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"I hope your day went well, I managed to get quite a few people very interested and the posters have all gone. Best Regards." Brian, Boat of Garten

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"Just a note to let you know of the events of Saturday 26^th October. I had a fantastic response at the COOP at Broadford. I spoke directly to ninety-five people and only had four negative reactions to our poster. Roughly two thirds of those I spoke to were locals, the others were visitors. The four negatives were all locals.

There were some amazing statements:

"My son worked for a local fish farm for a couple of years. He would never eat farmed fish after finding out the chemicals that were used."

"I never feed farmed salmon to my children or any of my family."

"After a mass escape from a fish farm in the Broadford area, warnings were given not to catch and eat the salmon because they were full of chemicals."

A local lady stated that she would display our poster in her restaurant. The children in a family group said that they didn't like salmon farms because the farmers shoot seals and herons.

All agreed that something needs to be done to protect wild stocks, the environment and, particularly, to make farm salmon safer to eat." John, an angler, visiting Sky

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"In Dingwall, we 'did' the High Street, Tesco, Safeway's and Somerfields. Really positive and a good reception. I was pleasantly surprised when lots of people said they didn't need leaflets as they wouldn't touch farmed fish"

"I posted copies of the leaflet to friends in Nottingham and Manchester. They are being given out at a hospital and to school teachers." " Anna, Rosshire

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"This is how things went at Elgin.

Visited ASDA first where we were moved on after only 8 mins by Jennifer (no surname) the under manageress who did take a few posters. Managed to pass out a few before we were moved but not to one Fish farm worker who told me to go away in the common slang term often used at my work (i'm a joiner in the building industry so I'm well versed in this). Next we headed for both Safeway and Tesco where we handed out all our remaining posters with no further incident. The Tesco manager did make an apperance but headed back into his shop with a few posters satisfied there was no harm being done by our peaceful protest. The encouraging thing was the amount of people aware of the damage being done by these farms as well as the health implications surrounding the fish themselves, as well as the awareness generated in the public by all the media coverage during the week."

Allan, Elgin

"I have never read so much ill informed rubbish in my life . I'm sure sepa would have something to say about fifty thousand fish in one pen , Thes fish you talk obout are they smoults or one , two .three kilo fish . stocking densities play a large part in fish farming but you know this the public don't why isn't this in your leaflet ,oh i forgot it a selective campaign you leave the truth out . as for pigment causing blindness , well that's absurd do you know how much of it you would have to eat . Anyway just thought what's the point of contacting you as the information that you're spreading is prehistoric bullshit , see you at safeway fort william"
J Brogan

"Glad to see your campaign the other weekend was a flop, maybe you should take a leaf out of the Bellona organisations book and work in collaboration with the Fish Farming Industry for improvements rather than entirely against it all the time.
You guys must have nothing better to do with your time, Fish Farming in Scotland (and the rest of the world) is here to stay, when will that sink in to your tiny minds. Fishing has depleted the seas and in order to sustain the requirement for high quality seafood products, farming of the sea as on land is the only way to go.
Yes, improvements can and are being made and perhaps would happen a lot faster if you were to help rather than hinder. Your level of support is very low as most sensibly minded people understand the need for industries such as ours. Far more good than harm is generated from it and believe me it will be around a lot longer than you or I.
Trusting that you will post this on your web site for other comments to follow.
Regards"
Dave Hutchens