Author: Leslie Long

TIM O’BRIEN

Fishing and tourism interests have reacted sharply to Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s claim that sea lice are not a significant factor in the deaths of wild Atlantic salmon.

In support of its plan for one of Europe’s largest salmon farms to be located in on a 456 hectare site in Galway Bay, the board said there was “no evidence to support the contention that salmon farming causes any environmental damage”. It also claimed the latest commentary form the Marine Institute showed sea lice amounted to just one per cent of deaths in “absolute” terms, among wild Atlantic salmon.

However, a number of industry and environmental groups have accused the Bord of not “fully reading” the research.

Tony Lowes of Friends of The Irish Environment said the Bord was relying on a study that found the level of sea lice mortality from fish farms was just one per cent of over all mortality of salmon smolts. But he said the overall survival rate of salmon smolts “is between five per cent and 10 per cent at the best of times – everything wants to eat them”.

What mattered he said was that “of the five to 10 per cent that should be returning, tests show that 40 per cent of these are not”. Mr Lowes said the original research quoted by Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Marine Institute had acknowledged this point.

Karin Dubsky of Coastwatch said “the results and conclusions actually reached in that research are worth a read on the Marine Institute website. She said the research “supports the view that infestation of outwardly migrating salmon smolts with salmon lice has a negative impact on fitness and can contribute to increased marine mortality”.

PJ Nally of Castlmartyr Co.Cork said the most recent Royal Society reviewed, internationally compiled paper, pointed to a near thirty nine per cent mortality in juvenile salmon infected by sea-lice from salmon farms in Ireland and Norway. He said attempts to establish Europe’s largest salmon farms “anywhere along our Atlantic coast the result will be the wilful decimation of our unique Atlantic Salmon gene pool.”

The Green Party which organised last week’s public meeting in Galway said a farm of the proposed size “would produce waste, many times greater than that produced by the current population of Galway city. Is this a risk we should take in the waters that surround the three great tourist landmarks of The Burren, The Aran Islands and Connemara, asked party spokesman Seamus Sheridan.

Patrick O’Flaherty Chairman Great Fishing Houses of Ireland said attempts by Bord Iascaigh Mhara “to pretend that Salmon Farming does not affect wild fish stocks would be, if not so serious, laughable. They most certainly must cause raised
eyebrows among the international marine science community who, almost to a man, cite aquaculture as a serious threat to wild salmon stocks”. The project he said “beggars belief”.

In a letter to The Irish Times this week Jason Whooley chief executive of Bord Iascaigh Mhara said there was ” no evidence to support the contention that salmon farming causes any environmental damage”. He also said the Marine Institute research had shown “that climate changes and other effects on the high seas and not salmon farming” were the main causes of declines in wild Atlantic salmon.

State bodies have disagreed on the science underpinning a proposed fish farm earmarked for Galway Bay.

Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) has applied for a licence to ??????grow?????? some 3.5 million salmon a year in cages on a 456 hectare site in the lee of the Aran Islands and claims the development has the potential to generate revenues of some ??????100 million annually. The sea fisheries development board said the move will create 500 jobs and provide an annual payroll of ??????14.5 million.

However opposition has come from fellow State agency Inland Fisheries Ireland which has raised scientific concern that potential infestations of sea lice could destroy Ireland??????s prized reputation for wild Atlantic salmon. This would endanger an angling industry worth at least ??????143 million a year and an associated ??????83 million in tourism revenues.

The Inland Fisheries body also produced a study, in collaboration with the Royal Society, which indicated that 39 per cent of wild salmon mortalities could be attributable to sea lice associated with fish farms.

Sea lice infestation

However at a public meeting in Galway this week BIM said Inland Fisheries Ireland had got its science wrong. The board said sea lice infestation was in fact ??????unlikely to be a significant factor influencing the conservation status of salmon stocks??????.

It quoted alternative research which it described as ??????definitive??????, carried out over a nine-year period by the Marine Institute and NUIG Galway involving more than 350,000 fish, released into eight different rivers in 28 experiments.

BIM said this research indicated that the level of marine mortality attributable to sea lice infestation was small ?????? about 1 per cent in absolute terms.

Donal Maguire, BIM??????s director of aquaculture development, said the research concluded there was ??????no evidence?????? to suggest sea lice infestation of migrating smolts was the significant cause of wild fish mortality.

Mr Maguire insisted that Inland Fisheries had ??????got its science wrong??????.

He said ??????sea lice are not the issue when it comes to marine survival of salmon??????. Mr Maguire said that BIM was planning three fish farms on the west coast. It had developed a salmon farm at Clare Island that produced 4,000 tonnes of salmon a year for 20 years with the local community??????s backing.

Special areas of conservation

BIM chief executive Jason Whooley said the site for the Galway Bay fish farm had been carefully selected, taking into account the locations of special areas of conservation and other protected areas. While the proposed fish-farm area was 456 hectares ?????? larger than neighbouring Inis O?????rr ?????? the cages would be at just two locations at the northern and southern ends of the site. They would occupy just 18 hectares each. Tests had shown the cages would be barely visible, if at all, from Inis O?????rr, he said.

Mr Whooley said the density of salmon in the cages would be limited to 1 per cent to 99 per cent water, or 10kg of fish to a cubic metre of water. Constant movement would ensure firm flesh and feeding would meet international criteria for organic salmon.

Employment

He said the fish farm would be phased in ??????not just plonked there at full size??????. Employment would also be ramped up and, ultimately, reach 350 direct jobs and 150 more in support services such as net-making.

 

The Irish Times – Saturday, February 2, 2013

OPPOSITION TO FISH FARMS:?????A range of fisheries and tourism interests say their opposition to salmon farms is based on bad experience.

Fisheries and estate manager Simon Ashe at Ballynahinch Castle near Cashel in Connemara said the estate used to have the largest sea trout hatcheries in the country, taking 5,000 sea trout out of nearby Bertraghboy Bay and surrounding waters each year. However, following the arrival of fish farms ,??????this was wiped out in three years??????.

He said stocks were starting to come back since some fish farms in the bay were abandoned.

He claimed he also has a collection of photographs of sea cages half sunk or dumped on the shore.

Ashe speaks of problems associated with parasites; the denuding of sand eels from the natural habitat to feed fish in cages, leaving wild salmon without traditional feeding grounds; of chemicals used to kill fish parasites; of the effect of chemicals on local oyster beds; of problems caused by escaped fish rivalling wild fish for spawning grounds; and the impact on angling tourism.

Of the Galway Bay project, he said: ??????I am surprised the Minister for Agriculture hasn??????t figured it out. He is probably facing a train wreck here.??????

Delphi Lodge??????s Michael Wade said a local project released 20,000 smolts, 10,000 of which were immunised from parasites. They went to sea ??????past the fish farm barrier?????? but the mortality rate among the non-immunised was shocking.

??????The fishing community of the world is watching this. If the Bord Iascaigh Mhara project goes ahead the anglers will go to Iceland or Russia. We have a wonderful resource here, all we have to do is leave it alone.??????

Enda Conneely from Inis O?????rr said five tourism and angling and development interests were concerned about the farm having seen a previous farm in the area fail with serious consequences.

An Taisce said it was opposed on environmental grounds . Friends of the Irish Environment said it was concerned the board was applying to its parent department for a licence. Other bodies opposed to the farm include Salmon Watch Ireland, the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers, No Salmon Farms at Sea, Coastwatch and Save Galway Bay.