North Ayrshire council is scheduled to consider the plans to build a giant fish farm near a recently-created marine conservation zone. The new fish farm is a proposal of Morwegian-owned company Marine Harvest to be build near Lamlash Bay and as per local authority is going to favour the people of the area.
The local campaigners said that the plan of new fish farm would threaten a ‘no-take zone’ agreed in principle earlier this year. According to a spokesman of Marine Harvest the new farm would not affect the marine reserve in that area. Richard Lochhead, secretary for rural affairs and the environment, announced in January that the area in Lamlash Bay would be created a ‘no-take zone’ banning fishing there.
Lochhead said that the zone would be the first in Scotland. It is designed to rebuild fish and shellfish stocks in the Firth of Clyde. Conservationists from the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (Coast) claimed that the proposed fish farm would undermine the whole project. According to them the farm would hold up to 800,000 fish, which would produce more than 1,170 tonnes of excrement during each production cycle.
A spokesman of the company said that the firm had consulted with the local community and the “no-take zone” and the fish farm could co-exist in the area. The North Ayrshire Council is expected to deliver its verdict this week on the proposal.
