I
Ian Cloke
Guest
<!--google_ad_section_start--> <!-- Article Start --> ANGLERS yesterday condemned the escape of about 4,000 fish from a trout farm in Argyll.
The rainbow trout, worth £15,000, escaped from the Scot Trout farm at Ardchattan on Loch Etive in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Wild fish groups said it is the latest in a long sequence of releases of farmed fish affecting the important River Awe system.
Roger Brook, chairman of the Argyll District Salmon Fishery Board, said: "We are bitterly disappointed but hardly surprised to have yet another major escape from a rainbow trout farm located adjacent to the mouth of the River Awe, Argyll's most important salmon river."
Stuart Cannon, of Scot Trout, the UK's leading trout processor, said the escape was due to mechanical failure during a storm with winds of about 90mph and the firm had plans to invest £150,000-£200,000 this year on new, more secure plastic cages.
The rainbow trout, worth £15,000, escaped from the Scot Trout farm at Ardchattan on Loch Etive in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Wild fish groups said it is the latest in a long sequence of releases of farmed fish affecting the important River Awe system.
Roger Brook, chairman of the Argyll District Salmon Fishery Board, said: "We are bitterly disappointed but hardly surprised to have yet another major escape from a rainbow trout farm located adjacent to the mouth of the River Awe, Argyll's most important salmon river."
Stuart Cannon, of Scot Trout, the UK's leading trout processor, said the escape was due to mechanical failure during a storm with winds of about 90mph and the firm had plans to invest £150,000-£200,000 this year on new, more secure plastic cages.