Offshore fish farms at risk from winter storms

Winter storms continue to pose a high risk to offshore fish farms and the threat of caged stock being released into the Atlantic.

Friends of the Irish Environment warned yesterday underwater inspections are not being conducted regularly on installations containing hundreds of thousands of farmed species.

Director Tony Lowes said the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries is continuing to refuse to release accident records from storm damage almost two years ago which led to the loss of 230,000 adult salmon at a fish farm in Gearhies in Bantry Bay, Co Cork.

Following the intervention of the Information Commissioner, the department has informed the environmental group that the date for completion of the report into the Marine Harvest-operated installation incident in February 2014, is December 31.

“The emails released to us show the report of the accident was not made by the operator until six days after the accident, at 5.35 PM on Friday February 6,” said Mr Lowes.

“Consequently, investigations did not begin until the Monday morning — nine days after the accident. This was far too late to determine how many of the fish escaped and how many were trapped to die in the collapsed cages.”

He said quarterly underwater inspections of the installations have been recommended by senior officials in the department.

“There is currently no form of underwater inspection of these installations, in spite of requests supported at assistant secretary level in Minister Simon Coveney’s department for adequate systems in relation to certification, maintenance, inspection, repairs and records to be put in place,” said Mr Lowes yesterday.

“The key question remains is if the damaged installations were subjected to a full underwater assessment before restocking and, furthermore, if regular inspections have been brought in to protect us from these disasters.”

As storms hammer coastlines, Mr Lowes said yesterday: “Unless proper underwater inspections are conducted, the risk of further releases and damage to the cases remains high for the winter months. The moorings, the chains and anchors, should be inspected at least every three months.”