Jamie's dead sea

Jamie Oliver has come under fire again over television commercials featuring a Scottish salmon farm.

Newly-released pictures are said to show that the seabed under a farm the celebrity chef praised in a Sainsbury's advert is devoid of life.

Campaigners claim that - far from being a thriving marine environment - the bottom of Loch Hourn, near the Isle of Skye, is so barren it is more like a lunar landscape where nothing can survive.

Bruce Sandison, of the Salmon Farm Protest Group, which released the pictures, said: 'I think Jamie Oliver has been ill-advised and I would like him to make a statement to that effect. I think it is very sad that he has allowed himself to be used in this way.'

Mr Sandison said the 'devastation' beneath the loch was caused by the

volume of waste produced by the fish and chemicals used to treat them, which did not get washed away by tides.

He added: 'In Loch Hourn there are a million fish and they are all producing faeces. When customers buy fish, I don't think they realise they spend their lives swimming around in their own effluent. I think people will be surprised by these pictures.'

Graeme Bruce, who led the diving team, said: 'There was no life. The whole area was inert. On the seabed we could see a litter of white shells, all that remained of the creatures that once lived there.

'I have not seen a reef so devoid of life. It looked just like a lunar landscape.'

The group has called for the farm, run by Marine Harvest, to be shut down and for an end to all fish farming in coastal waters. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said the company had been fined in 2000 for releasing fish carcasses and grease into the water, killing a large number of fish. A spokesman said a recent inspection showed that the firm was complying with conditions on fish weight, medicine usage and cage numbers. However, seabed surveys were showing some evidence of 'unsatisfactory impacts'.

'SEPA is discussing a programme of remedial action with the operator,' the spokesman added.

' Present monitoring shows a degree of environmental impact at the site significant enough to fail our environmental standards.'

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said last night: 'Food safety is our highest priority. Our fresh salmon is produced by approved suppliers and fully traceable to farms we regularly monitor.