Anti-salmon farm campaigners are calling on all supermarkets to stop buying salmon from fish farms where several hundred seals have been shot.

They are also writing to the US Department of Commerce calling for a ban on these sources of farmed salmon under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The industry has reacted robustly to the charges.

The Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) "named and shamed" the farms responsible for shooting 346 seals.

It said that Freedom of Information requests –initially blocked – show that during 2011 and the first four months of 2012, some 112 different salmon farms killed at least one seal – representing 52% of the 215 active salmon farms in Scotland.

Fifteen salmon farms accounted for over one-third (37%) of the killings – with seven accounting for a quarter of all killings.

What has particularly incensed campaigners is that an FOI reply from the Scottish Government in September 2012 had shown that 87% of Scottish salmon farms did not have predator nets because that "requires employing extra trained staff and regular cleaning".