A fish farm operated by Mainstream Scotland, part of the giant Norwegian salmon production conglomerate CERMAQ, initially refused to accept that the fish originated from its facility even though the location at Fossaway Bridge is upstream of a waterfall that is impassable to wild salmon. After much hue and cry over the escape of juvenile salmon and regular intervention of Fish Legal, Mainstream has now accepted liability and in an out of court settlement paid more than £13k to cover both the initial expenses incurred by the Forth District Salmon Fishery Board (FDSFB) and the costs of a subsequent electro-fishing clear-up operation.
Patrick Fothringham, Director of the FDSFB and RFFT, informed that prior to this incident it has not in news that salmon were being farmed in the Devon catchment. It is told that the company maintains that it was adhering to the salmon farming industry’s much-vaunted code of good practice. If indeed it was, the fish still managed to escape. Fothringham added that escapes of farmed salmon carry the inherent threat of spreading disease and the real threat of diluting the genetics of wild fish.
Andrew Wallace, Managing Director of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, explained that whilst there has been a marked improvement in containment in marine salmon farming cages over the last two years, this has not been mirrored in freshwater aquaculture where serial escapes of salmon smolts and rainbow trout are still unacceptably high at a time when issues of bio-security and concerns about genetic integrity are rising fast up the agenda.
