THE fish farming industry yesterday hit back at its critics, calling on the Scottish Executive to introduce tighter and more transparent regulations through a ''one-stop shop'' rather than the nine different bodies which can be involved at present.

Already this week fish farming has been blamed by some for a host of environmental sins. It has been linked to algal blooms which cause the amnesic shellfish poisoning currently destroying the scallop fishery, and to the decline in wild salmon and sea trout.

Yesterday the industry's co-ordinating body Scottish Quality Salmon was in Inverness. Its chairman, Lord Jamie Lindsay, underlined the magnitude of the contribution made by fish farming: ''It is the single most important economic development in the Highlands and Islands for the past 30 years. It supports employment for 6,500 people of whom 70% live in remote rural communities of the Highlands and Islands.''

But he accepted that there were public concerns about the industry. SQS had already taken steps to allay such fears, introducing independent monitoring and quality assurance and being willing to expel any member whose farm did not meet these new standards.

Lord Lindsay said that establishing a new single regulatory agency would produce the greater transparency, coherence and confidence the aquaculture industry needed.