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LAST UPDATE | 20 Aug 2024
INLAND FISHERIES IRELAND has said it was not formally notified of a significant farmed salmon escape in Co Galway within the mandatory 24-hour period.
Various organisations, including Salmon Watch Ireland and Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages, were informed of a “major escape of farmed salmon” from Killary Harbour on 11 August.
Salmon farm operators are required to inform the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) of any “abnormal losses” within 24 hours.
IFI is the State environment agency responsible for protecting, managing, and conserving Ireland’s inland fisheries.
However, in a statement to The Journal, IFI said it was “not formally notified” of the escape “in line with the statutory requirement to inform IFI within 24 hours of any escape”.
IFI added that it “became aware of the incident early last week” and that it has “made contact with local fishery owners and angling clubs regarding the incident”.
The spokesperson added that IFI continues to monitor for any escaped fish at local rivers, as well as at its research trapping facilities in the National Salmonid Index Catchment at River Erriff in Co Mayo.
The National Salmonid Index Catchment comprises the Erriff Catchment and Killary Harbour area, with research activities further extending out into the adjacent marine zone.
IFI also noted that identification of farmed salmon mixing among wild stocks “can be challenging due to the lack of clear markers identifying farmed fish”.
IFI said it “remains concerned about the impacts of salmon farming, including such issues as escapes and sea lice on our wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout stocks – whose continued sustainability remains under threat from a range of pressures”.
It also remarked that escaped farmed salmon are detrimental to wild salmon stocks through interbreeding, which can impact the health and diversity of wild salmon populations.
“The nearby Erriff and Delphi (Bundorragha) wild salmon and sea trout stocks in particular have been negatively impacted over a long period by sea lice associated with salmon farming,” said IFI.
“If local anglers catch farmed salmon, a blue salmon gill tag must be placed in the fish and this can be replaced by IFI when surrendered to staff,” the IFI spokesperson added.
While IFI said it was not in a position to confirm the exact number of salmon that escaped, Salmon Watch Ireland estimated the figure could be around 10,000.
Salmon Watch Ireland was formed in 2004 and its stated aim is to “highlight the alarming decline of Atlantic salmon in Ireland”.
Meanwhile, Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages (GBASC) used the 10,000 figure as its lowest estimate, and claimed the number could be as large as 30,000.
GBASC warned the escape could have “a devastating impact on the Erriff and Delphi rivers flowing into Killary Harbour and other nearby rivers, such as Kylemore River, Clifden River, Culfin River and Ballynahinch River, if these escapees are not recaptured”.
In a statement today, GBASC said some of the farmed salmon have entered local rivers and that a number have been caught by tourists fishing for mackerel.
Chair of GBASC Billy Smyth said the escaped salmon are in a “very poor condition”.
Smyth also voiced concern that no public statement was issued by the Department or IFI until this week, and he labelled the incident an “environmental disaster”.
The cage at Killary Harbour is licensed to Docon Limited in Co Mayo but operated by the Mannin Bay Salmon Company.
In a statement to The Journal, Mannin Bay Salmon Company said: “We confirm that an escape of VERY HEALTHY fish that had NEVER been exposed or treated with pesticides, whatsoever, did occur at our farm on/after August 12th.”
It added that “all Statutory agencies were notified of this event as soon as was possible” and that it has “cooperated fully with these agencies to investigate the root cause and put in place mitigation measures including recapture of any farmed stock”.
“We are obviously very upset at this loss of stock and are implementing measures to prevent recurrence,” said the company.
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We have the other extreme here. Damned if do. Damned if you don’t. The fact is heroin destroys families. They should of thought of that when selling the horrible stuff.
You’ll find that the majority, if not all, these inmates have come from broken homes and deprived communities where they sold drugs to survive. It’s nasty and yes they were part of the cycle that they themselves were trapped in but Obama is acknowledging that solution involve them; much in the same way Mo Molam knew the peace process in NI had to involve inmates in British prisons.
Why is Obama doing this at the end of his term instead of at the beginning? The US prison population stands at over 2million. That’s more than China has incarcerated. It’s almost 2.5 times more than Russia has in prison.
the vast majority of prisons in the US are privately owned, run foe profit and care more about the bottom line than society. barry is an actor..reading off a script and being told what to do, as badly as drugs have messed up parts of society unpunished white collar crime and the burden it has put on society has damaged it a lot more.
in america there is a prison industrial complex,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,thats the problem.
here there are yobos with 17 previous convictions walking free and committing more serious crimes because the justice system is far to lenient on them. the legal system does not mind, its a big cash cow for them.
Obama is a good actor and that’s all. It is well established fact that since he took office his administration has refused more freedom of information requests than other other administration in US history. And if he gave two shits about ‘non-violent crimes’ then he’d have long arranged for Snowden to come home and would have intervened in the Bradley Manning case as he could have done at any time.
He’s a liar, and has done nothing but further liberalise US laws (which is why most of these guys are in prison in the first place).
Hilary Clinton is far worse than he and if she makes it in it’s bye bye US.
OK idiot. Restored pride to US after years of Bush’s wrath. A true statesman. Agree with you about Hillary though. I hope Sanders wins
Try making a point like an adult and I might respond to you. Other than that. Take a hike.
you just replied to him.
My heart is bleeding purple piss reading the sob stories.
If anything our Judiciary here could learn a thing or two from US Judges about sentencing and the whole US legal system.
Instead of having Solicitors and Barristers they have just one set Lawyers who deal with your case from start to finish. Where there is a dedicated Prosecution Service staffed by full time Prosecution Lawyers and a dedicated Public Defenders Office staffed with full time Defence Lawyers for those that would normally get free legal aid here. And then Private Legal Firms for those that can afford them.
Yes because there is so little crime in the US compared to Ireland.
Funny how you, a prison officer, propose following almost every part of the US save the mass privatization of prisons, wonder why that could be, oh right, self interest.
Wari.
Simply because Privatised Prisons have been shown time and time again to be an utter disaster in terms of security and staff safety. One only has to look at our nearest neighbour to see just how much of a bad idea they are and why the rest of Europe are not following suit. In reality they actually cost the state more than those under Government control in the long term.
I’m all for criminals doing time for their crimes especially violent or sexual crime but some of the sentences for carrying a small amount of drugs are ridiculous. Check out the segment John Oliver did on it, it’s a real eye opener. When I think of the idiot I was as a teenager, I would hate to go to jail for 15 years because of being on idiot.
I didn’t deal drugs! lol
If the sale of illegal substances was legalised and regulated then a lot of these places would see a massive reduction in crime as the people relying on the drug trade to make a living would be forced into tax-paying, gainful employment as they could not compete with a well regulated, safe industry. Also, not only would we gain the tax from the legal sale of drugs, it would be much easier to ensure the quality and safety of such substances as they could be tested in proper labs before being passed onto the public. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the head in the sand approach just doesn’t work. As long as there is a clear demand for drugs, there will always be people willing to risk everything to meet that demand for massive tax free profits.
In fact the Americans have the right idea here. Conspiracy to distribute heroin is no small crime. In my opinion 15 years is entirely appropriate. Crime must be punished harshly or we are all doomed.
They should do more about guns than 1000 year prison terms
How about maybe not dealing heroin. Heroin is a violent drug as is most other drugs. And yes that includes Weed. So just because the initial deal was violent… what we should let them away. The Americans have the right way. Full length senences for federal offences. If we could adopt there legal court room system this country would be a hell of a lot better off.
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