Farmed salmon escape into Connacht rivers

Murt10 · 10-10-2017 03:15PM #1

Inland Fisheries Ireland is investigating an escape of farmed salmon in counties Galway and Mayo.

A total of 65 farmed salmon have been caught in the Newport, Errif, Bunowen, and Kylemore river networks in recent days. A number were also recovered at the Delphi fishery.

Analysis on some of them has shown that several male fish were mature on capture and had the potential to spawn.

This would have an impact on the integrity of the native salmon stock.

IFI says that no escapes have been reported to the Department of Agriculture by farm owners.

It is a legal requirement to notify officials of any such breach.

The Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages group says it is concerned that if escaped fish interbreed with native stocks, the genetic integrity of wild fish will be severely compromised.

Inland Fisheries Ireland said its investigations are seriously compromised by a lack of information from fish farm operators regarding the escapes.

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2017/1010/911191-fish-escape-galway-mayo/

If 65 have been caught, I dread to think how many escaped!

Zzippy · 10-10-2017 07:59PM

And the fish pharming industry knows their obligations to report all escapes but haven't done so. No surprises there then.

The IFA put out a press release too: https://www.ifa.ie/sectors/aquaculture/jellyfish-swarm-2017/

Update on jellyfish swarm on the west coast – October 2017

A large stinger jellyfish swarm has occurred all along the west coast over the past number of weeks(beginning end of Sept 2017). The incident is well known to biologists, seafarers and all marine users. It was more severe in some areas than others.

Salmon farms were impacted by the swarm, which is to be expected, with varying levels of mortality and in one case (Killary) very severely.

Salmon farmers, as per the terms of their licences, informed the appropriate authorities in the Fish Health unit of the Marine Institute of the mortalities.

Procedures required under law and within certification systems, and which are necessary for environmental protection and are part of each company’s plans, were immediately implemented. These required the removal of mortalities and transportation to a rendering plant for disposal under By-Products regulations. This responsible and legally required action was documented and information is available to the authorities.

At no stage were any fish released. Salmon farmers wish to protect each and every fish alive so that they may on-grow them for the market.

It should be noted that despite highly erroneous claims by anti fish farm agitators, there has never been a case where salmon farmers have been compensated by the state, there is no mechanism to do so and no budget available. Salmon farmers are and always have been reliant on very expensive private insurance for any stock losses.

At no stage were any fish released? That would explain all the escapes coming into nearby rivers then...

As for transporting to rendering plants, at least they're not illegally burying them in bogs anymore, and the IFA aren't defending it, unlike in 2003, when Richie Flynn, then of the Irish Salmon Growers Association and now the IFI rep for aquaculture said dumping fish was illegal, then when informed RTE had filmed fish being dumped in a bog, turned around and said it was legal to dump them anywhere "in emergency circimstances:

https://vimeo.com/51718073

RTE Primetime documentary from 2003. The same people running the industry now. Worth a watch but go to 28 mins for evidence of illegal dumping of salmon and Richie Flynn's comments at 30:30

lazybones32 · 11-10-2017 10:20PM

Pardon my ignorance but i don't understand the importance of this. I see where it says genetic integrity will be compromised but how so?
Are farmed salmon from a small number of genetically similar males? Do they carry genetic susceptibilities that the wild fish don't?
Curious...

Zzippy · 11-10-2017 11:37PM

lazybones32 wrote: »

Pardon my ignorance but i don't understand the importance of this. I see where it says genetic integrity will be compromised but how so?
Are farmed salmon from a small number of genetically similar males? Do they carry genetic susceptibilities that the wild fish don't?
Curious...

Farmed salmon are originally a Norwegian strain, genetically very different to Irish salmon which have evolved to survive best in Irish rivers. Indeed, each river strain is genetically distinct from each other, so salmon are evolved to survive best in their native river. Scientific research has shown that diluting local genes by introducing non-native salmon reduces "genetic fitness" and can trigger a spiral of extinction in that stock.
In addition, the original Norwegian strain has been selectively bred to grow faster and bigger, which helps them out compete native strains and exacerbate the problems above. The main concern is that escaped farmed salmon will spawn with native salmon and introduce less favourable genes into the native stock, which sets about the reduction in fitness and survival as referred to above.

Caribs · 12-10-2017 10:18AM

Okay then, own up, clearly it's not the salmon farms so who's secretly releasing farmed salmon into the rivers?

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/salmon-producers-insist-they-are-not-to-blame-as-farmed-salmon-found-in-rivers-809538.html

a148pro · 21-10-2017 11:03PM

Zzippy wrote: »

And the fish pharming industry knows their obligations to report all escapes but haven't done so. No surprises there then.

The IFA put out a press release too: https://www.ifa.ie/sectors/aquaculture/jellyfish-swarm-2017/

At no stage were any fish released? That would explain all the escapes coming into nearby rivers then...

As for transporting to rendering plants, at least they're not illegally burying them in bogs anymore, and the IFA aren't defending it, unlike in 2003, when Richie Flynn, then of the Irish Salmon Growers Association and now the IFI rep for aquaculture said dumping fish was illegal, then when informed RTE had filmed fish being dumped in a bog, turned around and said it was legal to dump them anywhere "in emergency circimstances:

https://vimeo.com/51718073

RTE Primetime documentary from 2003. The same people running the industry now. Worth a watch but go to 28 mins for evidence of illegal dumping of salmon and Richie Flynn's comments at 30:30

Great documentary, thank you for posting, I eat a fair bit of farmed salmon from Clare Island and this makes me think twice to say the least. Why do they need to farm near where there is a wild fishery?

They should do an update on this documentary and see where we are now.

Are those two lads really still involved in the bodies mentioned? Pretty laughable if they are. EDIT - I see from Caribs link that at least one is

demanufactured · 22-10-2017 09:22AM

Well that's all the begorrah about "wild Atlantic salmon only in Devon whesht" done with.

kildare lad · 29-10-2017 09:51PM

Not to worry lads,Im sure those hungry sex mad pike in connacht, will have no problem eating them all.

blackpearl · 07-11-2017 05:40PM

kildare lad wrote: »

Not to worry lads,Im sure those hungry sex mad pike in connacht, will have no problem eating them all.

Sure the mad trout men will have all the pike netted out so the farmed salmon will be ok.

kildare lad · 07-11-2017 09:47PM

blackpearl wrote: »

Sure the mad trout men will have all the pike netted out so the farmed salmon will be ok.

:pac::pac::pac::pac:

shanye · 11-11-2017 09:16AM

So how have these fish found there way into these Rivers I live very close to all these Rivers and very curious....I think there's something fishy going on.

RockyRory · 09-01-2018 02:14PM

have all those nasty evil sex mad pike eaten all those pink salmon yet?

in years to come, theyll be praying for more and more pike down west.

Farmed salmon escape into Connacht rivers

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