Anger over escape of trout from fish farm

[Ian Cloke]

<!--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.

 

[peter murray 3]

Had a conversation with a fishfarm worker who told me when the farmed stock was unsold and becominga liability,he was instructed to release them!! Proprietors had no market for them after a certain period and would not bear the extra costs.

I hope it was untrue, wild Seatrout and Salmon are in enough trouble as it is. If only they had fur or feathers on, I would be trampled underfoot by the rush of "dogooders".

 

[JIMMY---PAAS]

Peter; It was Loch Awe, and it was a seal that tore the nets away to get to the fish, and in the end up the seal won, and it was approximate 20,000 salmon, and no trout.

 

[peter murray 3]

I remember that one Jimmy, and had some bemused farmed salmon in the Clyde and its feeders. But this guy was saying the rainbows were now too big for supermarket size, unsellable, so were just released. He was off very early to do the deed. I have no way of confirming his story.

 

[JIMMY---PAAS]

Peter; I,ve never heard of that on mate (very strange)

Also its good to know that you are in Bonnie Scotland.

 

[peter murray 3]

Will I be able to cast a whole salmon deadbait, Jimmy? Or is it best to trim it, ala Mick Brown?

No problem today with the wind behind, just make sure I dont go in after it.

Only kidding. I wish these ecapees were a laughing matter !

 

[JIMMY---PAAS]

Peter; Why dont you put your email on this site;(message member) mate, NO one can get it, and then we can talk to each other.

 

[peter murray 3]

I thought it was there already, will go and check.

 

[JIMMY---PAAS]

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[peter murray 3]

I am now a geek.

 

[JIMMY---PAAS]

Peter you,ve got email.

 

[peter murray 3]

Ian's post about the escapees are a heads up to all who fish in Scotland, and the north of England. Residents and visitors. Fish farm waste, escapees and accidents can do no good to any wild fish. When the wild trout, seatrout and salmon get polluted by species that do not belong, we all know the eventual outcome.

We have signal crayfish, cormorants, zebra mussels and more. We have a drastic fall in sandeels and foodfish at sea. Do we have a fishing future? Do we have the will and determination to tackle the problems, most of which are man made, through greed and ignorance. I do not see many red squirrels unless I travel50 or more miles. How long will they survive against "illegal immigrants".

American food experts recommend eating farmed salmon NO MORE THAN TWICE A YEAR. If we are supposed to be prepared to pay for "organic" food, why then eat farmed salmon at all. Or farmed trout?

Funny lot aint we?

 

[JIMMY---PAAS]

You said it mate.

 

[Trev 2]

It seems a bit iffy to me how all these (alleged) escapes happen at night !!!! But it's not just the escapees that spoil the fishing.I was on Mull, with some mates, doing a bit of sea and fly fishing, when we got talking to a lad from a diving club (also a fisherman) and he let us have a look at a video he'd taken, under one of the salmon farms in a sea loch(he wouldn't say where, cos the owners of the farm weren't too happy about it).

The bottom looked just like a bl**dy desert, no weed or any sign of any life, no crabs, starfish or anything like that. He also said the water was "crawling" with sealice. no wonder the salmon and seatrout are staying away. I won't go into rant mode about the "Parly" and their attitude to it..

Trev

 

[Ian Cloke]

US west coast braced for ban on salmon fishing as stocks collapse

Will this happen over here? I know they are "blaming" other things, but farming is amongst the list.

 

[Ian Cloke]

Fish farms needn't be an environmental disaster

 

[JIMMY---PAAS]

Ian; Myself I think that they all should stop (Trout/Salmon) Farming. But the bottom line is, it will never happen. As it,s all about money.