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Arran concern over fish farm impact |
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Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
Environmental campaigners on the island of Arran claim that a proposed new fish farm in the area could damage a marine conservation area declared by the Government last month.
Arran’s Lamlash Bay became Scotland’s first Community Marine Area in January, with fishing prohibited in part of the bay. But local campaigners say a large new fish farm planned by multi-national company Marine Harvest for waters just off Arran would negate the benefits accrued by the conservation area.
North Ayrshire council will hear the planning application for the fish farm on March 4. If given approval, the farm would be one of the largest in Scotland, containing 800,000 fish in a site 100 metres long and 700 metres wide with an average depth of 29 metres. Campaigners say the farm would need 5000 tonnes of feed per production cycle, resulting in 1170 tonnes of excrement. The farm would also use a number of chemicals, including organophosphates.
Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) spokesman Don Macneish said:
“COAST is not against sustainable fish farming, but this fish farm is being proposed for the wrong location. We cannot take a chance with the health of our children, or the health of our fragile marine environment in this place. The precautionary principal should apply here, and this fish farm should be located somewhere more suitable.
“If this proposed fish farm goes ahead, the local environment could be damaged and a groundbreaking project of an Island community and commercial fishermen working together to improve marine conservation and shellfish stocks will be compromised, all for the sake of making some more money for an already very rich, foreign-owned, multi-national company.”
Launching the Community Marine Area on January 21, Rural Affairs and the Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said:
“This is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when we all work together. The proposals have been community driven and that has been key to their success. The conservation area proposals in Lamlash Bay have been supported by the Scottish Government and are the first of their kind in Scotland.
“The proposals strike a balance between fishing and marine conservation. We will see fisheries management in one part of the bay, the safeguarding of the natural marine environment in the other and a boost in tourism for the whole of Arran.”
One person has commented on this article. 1. Arran concern over fish farm impact
Anonymous, Unregistered Fish farming is not a major impact and is highly regulated. If we are really serious about protecting the marine environment, lets have a proper debate. It makes more environmental sense to ban commercial trawl fishing in the Clyde area and move to a solely static gear fishery and also promote refuges from fishing pressure, fish farms also act as refuges, both measures will create more jobs -better for the economy and be better for the environment. Trawling -particularly scallop dredging and Nephrops trawling do enormous damage to the fragile ecology of the Clyde and Loch Fyne, their trawls smash every soft bodied marine creature on the seabed and they plough up the seabed, in addition there is an enormous bycatch that is about 300 % of the yield of prawns or scallops and this is dumped back dead. Surprisingly SNH who are supposed to regulate impacts like this turn a blind eye to this daily environmental catastrophe? IT is really disturbing that this massive daily environmental destruction goes on for what is an economically very marginal business. The Clyde is because of fishing activities is one of the most damaged marine ecosystems on the planet. Almost every square metre of the Clyde is trawled on average 5 times a year this means that as long as Nephrops and Scallop dredging -seabed ploughing- is allowed they will not recover. Juvenile cod, hake, haddock and whiting are all caught by the small mesh -70mm- of the nephrops trawls and killed, this means the stocks will never recover as long as these activities are allowed to continue. The fisherman will try to claim they fit escape panels but most fish are still caught as a bycatch -as towing the net slightly differently close the panels and the fish are killed in the cod end. CITES and the EU have recommended a zero catch for cod for the whole of the west coast of Scotland, minimal catches for whiting and haddock, how can these stock recover if the major fishing pressure trawling for Nephrops is killing these species before they can breed. For further info see the FRS website and also see the journal -Science- paper on degraded marine ecosystems.
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