Comment posted Scotland’s fish farming: concept to reality by Russell Cheshire.
John-in-Kintyre: Perhaps you would like to re-read my response. If you telephone the offices concerned and ask to speak to the persons responsible for dealing with this situation you may hear what we have already heard; I am not responsible for what government agencies choose to relay via their web sites.
Russell Cheshire also commented
- John-in-Kintyre: not all information on every topic is yet available via Google; perhaps telephone calls to the relevant offices will provide you with the confirmation you require. The telephone numbers are available via web sites or telephone directory services.
- As I write, it seems that St Molios Fish Farm, Lamlash Bay, is once again being cleared of salmon. There has been another outbreak of disease and an estimated 800 to 900 tonnes of infected fish are being taken away for incineration. This information is from SEPA and Marine Scotland; the Scottish Salmon Co. are reluctant to keep the community on Arran informed as to what is happening. It would be interesting to know if there have been more outbreaks in the Argyll area.
Recent comments by Russell Cheshire
- CalMac and Argyll Ferries in joint action with charity to put defibrillators on ferries
Terrific idea, and not before time. To answer the question about “competent public” use, these devices are designed only to operate when necessary and include full instructions; however professional medical aid must be sought as a matter of urgency.
What does surprise me is that a company of the size of CalMac requires assistance from a charity to purchase about two dozen AEDs, given that these are available at a cost of between £800 and £1,200 each from a range of suppliers. Perhaps the board has made arrangements for a suitable donation to BHF Scotland?
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An excellent and informative article which paints a true picture of salmon farming in Scotland. A picture that the mainstream Scottish media will not publish for political reasons.
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Hi. Your website has just been sent me by Roddy Campbell on Harris. I am on Coll. Visit Coll website is the best site about this island…not mine! We are too threatened with a giant fish farm. 1,000,000 fish big. Just round the corner from Arinagour the village which is on the sea loch where the detritus will come into.I didn’t know about the threat to Seil. I used to work on Rua Fiola so am familiar with Seil and Luing.It is Marine Harvest here and they have said they will only come if the island votes in favour of them. We have asked them to do the EIA BEFORE we vote. That should come in December ish. I am trying to find, along with the fishermen and a few others, reasons why a fish farm should never come. Apparently we have Maerl beds, Sea Grass and Fan Mussels on the site for instance.But I cannot dive so have to wait for proof from others.The information you have provided on this site is amazing and I will send the link on. Kind regards, Pauline.
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As an outsider with no detailed knowledge of the industry I’d be interested to know if SEPA and SNH were ever consulted on the environmental impact of withdrawing the original requirement to ‘rotate’ cage sites after ten years, and on the more recent decision to relax the standards for allowable pollution zones around cages.
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An excellent, very clear and informative article. The Scottish Government are trying to ignore this problem and are answering valid representations (if at all) with politic-spin-speak. I have read that China will not allow Norwegian derivative companies to operate open-net fish farms in their waters. Are they protecting against pollution, disease? There needs to be a full, transparent, robust and independent review of fish farming in Scottish waters and in the meantime new applications should be halted before it is too late. Take a look at fishfarmnews.blogspot.com which is full of information (author has read and condensed more than 10,000 documents). I only had to do a very little investigation into fish farming to realize this needs to be addressed for the good of Scotland and future generations.
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Not exactly partial reporting? I’m no fan of Morpol/Lakeland, but I suspect even they will have planned fallow periods as signatories to the AMA. It is also very unlikely the generator will run all night as feeding will only take place during daylight hours. If noise pollution is such an issue why does no one complain about the diesel plant running on the existing local mussel farm?
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@Robert Wakeham
I understand the wider AZEs were set by SEPA, we haven’t discovered the scientific basis, but it’s something we’ll pursue.
@Fachan
The local AMA (Area Management Agreement) collapsed after the fishing interests withdrew, because one of the two farm companies failed to comply with it. Which one is not public knowledge.
We believe the generators will run round the clock, but Lakeland may wish to confirm this. For reasons of space my article didn’t state that they propose to operate underwater lighting during the winter months, which would certainly require power (and create light pollution). I wasn’t personally aware that an existing mussel farm was running diesel plant. Maybe a Seil resident will comment?
Re your first comment saveseilsound campaign group is of course against these applications, but I refute the suggestion that we are partial (Chambers:- “one who is biased: one who sees or knows only part”).
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An excellent article- provided the reader is looking for sensationalist claptrap.
I have posted before that For Argyll is best when reporting facts, but at its worst when allowing itself to be used as a medium for an ‘anti-something’ rants.
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Can I suggest that School Defender reads this?
Beauty-spot lochs contaminated by toxic chemicals – Herald Scotland http://bit.ly/uHQo2Q
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What’s this? The Herald taking some hearsay and selective snippets and trying to portray it as fact? Please FA, don’t use The Herald as your role model.
Thanks Planet Blue, it proves my point exactly.
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This is a very well researched article. The current expansion in the industry is of great concern from the point of view of the many people in Argyll who are employed by tourism.
It is frankly unnecessary to shoot seals when the fitting of double nets round cages would solve the problem. There would also be no need to use acoustic seal scarers which have been shown to scare away and damage the hearing of porpoise. Because whales dolphins and porpoise echo locate themselves around the underwater world, if you damage their hearing they are effectively blinded in their environment.
People come to this area because it is wild, if we allow these farms to operate the cheapest possible way without due consideration for wildlife we will lose some of the jobs and income that tourists bring to this area.
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You only think it is well researched because you feel it depicts your personal, albeit misguided, point of view.
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Where is YOUR point of view?
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Morag, my original comments were directed at blatantly biased reporting, and subsequent comments citing hearsay as fact. My own personal view on fish farming is irrelevant to this thread.
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What about the 1,500 people employed on fish farms mentioned in the Herald article, not forgetting those employed by the industries to service the fish farms eg engineers, electrians, boatyard workers, boat builders, truckers, processors and all other suppliers.
It is estimated there are an additional 3 jobs ashore to 1 on the fish farms.
Fish farming, like it or dislike it, is now the MAJOR employer in Argyll and our economy would be in dire straits without it.
What and who are the fish farms who operate the “cheapest”, that is just another “cheap shot argument”
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Hi Scotland
I read perhaps 150 pages a week on world news on fish farms. You should to, something that is easily searched on Google.
In my opinion, this is a good and fair historical article on farming in Scotland, and I will suggest people read it.
A couple of things, though:
The overall figures that fish farms put out regarding employment and size of industry are typically far over what they really are.
For example, in BC Canada, they claim 6,000 employed. The Dept of Fisheries and Oceans figure is 1,256, and Marine Harvest has just laid off more than 60 workers. In other words, the more credible figure of less than 1200 workers suggests that you divide the fish farm number by 6 to get real employment. Oh, and MH is in financial trouble with shares of about 20 pence.
As for industry economic output, in BC, fish farms claim $800 Million in output. The BC Stats government figure is about $250 M. That means that you can divide the Scotland industry number by 3.2 to get a more accurate estimation of the number of pounds per year.
The other comment I would make is go back and look at the news from Chile. After just getting rid of ISA that caused a $2 Billion loss, 23 farms have been sequenced for ISA and within the past couple of weeks one farm had to be slaughtered because of an outbreak of ISA. Disease is cyclical.
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As I write, it seems that St Molios Fish Farm, Lamlash Bay, is once again being cleared of salmon. There has been another outbreak of disease and an estimated 800 to 900 tonnes of infected fish are being taken away for incineration. This information is from SEPA and Marine Scotland; the Scottish Salmon Co. are reluctant to keep the community on Arran informed as to what is happening. It would be interesting to know if there have been more outbreaks in the Argyll area.
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Lot of spin and cherry picking of the facts and figures here so decided to find out some facts myself.
For example the above article states no farms are left fallow .
Number of people employed on the sites is in fact lower than stated Sunday Herald article, it is actually about 1,100 so do not believe everything you read in papers, e-mail Hugh Grant he will back me up.
2010 facts and figures from Scottish Goverment, kintyre1 please do not berate me for using official stats from Marine Scotland.
247 seawater sites, 158 sites were fallow for variable periods whilst 36 farms were fallow for the whole of 2010.
source:- http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/11/17152846
Also googled SEPA and Marine Scotland re Lamlash and no mention of any outbreak, so Russel post a link please.
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John-in-Kintyre: not all information on every topic is yet available via Google; perhaps telephone calls to the relevant offices will provide you with the confirmation you require. The telephone numbers are available via web sites or telephone directory services.
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Russell, still have not found any mention of this supposed incident, I would have thought the web-site you contribute to would have highlighted this matter as a matter of urgency.
Marine Scotland and SEPA have nothing on this on their web-sites which I find surprising.
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John-in-Kintyre: Perhaps you would like to re-read my response. If you telephone the offices concerned and ask to speak to the persons responsible for dealing with this situation you may hear what we have already heard; I am not responsible for what government agencies choose to relay via their web sites.
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Thanks Ewan – that’s an excellent and measured article.
We are facing the threat of a Scottish Salmon Company site off the Isle of Gometra.
The Island’s small population is 100% opposed to this.
Please see our petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/savestaffaarchipelago/ and circulate if you agree with it.
There is also a petition against the proposed Scottish Salmon Company site at Ardmeanach :
http://www.change.org/petitions/argyll-and-bute-council-stop-the-proposed-mega-salmon-fish-farm-in-loch-scridain-isle-of-mull
My email is gometrafarm@mac.com – please add me to your mailing list re the seil sound campaign if possible.
Best wishes,
Roc
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