Campaigners lodge formal objection to salmon farm 13/3/13
An island campaign group opposed to the “harmful” expansion of fish farms has lodged
a formal objection to the Scottish Salmon Company's (SSC) proposed new development
at Reibinish, Scadabay.
SSC wants to install 16 cages plus a feed barge at the site, at the mouth of East
Loch Tarbert on Harris.
It is opposed by the Outer Hebrides Against Fish Farm Campaign (OHAFF) which highlights
it has the “full endorsement of many local people.
OHAFF says residents in the immediate area including those running tourism and marine-based
businesses “will be directly and adversely effected by this fish farm if it gets
planning approval.”
The body maintains the proposed salmon farm will harm the local economy and jobs,
hit island fishermen and curtail important shellfish grounds as well as cause pollution.
It says local wild salmon and sea trout will suffer with a “new burden of sea lice
infestation.”
Tourism businesses will lose trade says the campaign group.
OHAFF spokesperson, Peter Urpeth, said: "This is the wrong place for a new fish farm,
and especially for one of the huge scale that is proposed by the Scottish Salmon
Company.
“The East Tarbert sea areas are already congested with fish farms which are having
a very significant negative impact on the marine environment and other business and
recreational users of the sea area which are key to the local economy.”
He added: "Apart from the major problems fish farms are having locally with amoebic
gill disease and sea lice infestations, there are very worrying signs of a growing
negative impact of fish farm pollution on sea life.
“Wild salmon and sea trout are in major decline in comparison to twenty years ago,
and Harris might as well say goodbye to tourism and any form of diversity in its
economy if this farm gets the go ahead.
“Local inshore fisheries are being obstructed; their grounds denuded, and this fish
farm is being proposed against government and local planning guidelines.
"This situation is not sustainable and an expansion of fish farming locally will
be nothing short of a disaster for the environment and the local economy."
The body claims that 67% of those who supported the planning application via the
Comhairle's online planning consultation system are either senior employees of the
Scottish Salmon Company, or - as in at least one known case - the director of a company
whose business will directly profit if the proposed fish farm goes ahead.