Mikill fjöldi eldislaxa hefur gengið í ár víða um Írland á undanförnum dögum og vikum eftir að bátur rauf netapoka í sjókví með þeim afleiðingum að 10.000 til 30.000 eldislaxar sluppu.
Engar reglugerðir koma í veg fyrir að mannleg mistök gerist. Spurningin er bara hvenær netapokarnir rofna ekki hvort. Það er hinn eini órjúfanlegi þáttur sjókvíaeldis og þeirra frumstæðu tækni sem þessi skaðlegi iðnaður hvílir á.
Umfjöllun Irish Times má lesa hér:
Significant numbers of farmed salmon, believed to have escaped from a fish farm in Killary harbour in northern Connemara, have spread to prime angling rivers over a wide area of the west of Ireland.
The numbers of fish, the large distances they have covered since the incident happened at the Mannin Bay Salmon Company facility on August 11th, and indications many are diseased have angered rod anglers. One prominent anglers’ representative said the incident highlighted an ongoing issue of lack of effective regulation in the salmon farming sector. …
Salmon farm operators are required to report any “abnormal losses” within 24 hours. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 fish escaped after a boat tore a net in rough sea conditions.
The Irish Times confirmed on Wednesday that farmed fish were found in the nearby Delphi and Erriff rivers. Since then they have been found in the Dawros river, which is a considerable distance away, coming out of Kylemore lakes and running into Ballinakill Bay.
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Other fish have been found in the Bunowen and Carrowiskey rivers, with unconfirmed reports of some being found in the Owenmore river some 70km away – all of which are in Co Mayo.
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Experts had predicted it would be three to five weeks before the farmed salmon would go into freshwater rivers but this has proved to be incorrect. As a consequence Dawros anglers were trying to get as many of its members out over the weekend in an effort to remove the fish, tag them and forward them to the IFI. “That is all we can do; we’re trying to fish them out,” said Mr O’Neill.
The Department said on Friday, following notification from the licensee there had been an escape of salmon, its marine engineers inspected the site on August 15th. “The Department is currently reviewing the report of this inspection. A report has also been requested from The Marine Institute, as the Department’s scientific adviser. The Department will, in the first instance, be discussing these reports with the licensee. Once all necessary reports have been received, the Department will review the information available to determine if there has been a breach of any licensing conditions,” a spokesman said.