A chance to allay fish farm fears - Galway Bay salmon plan dropped

THE decision by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) to withdraw its licence application for a 15,000-tonne salmon farm in Galway Bay — it would have been the biggest in Europe — is to be welcomed. That those who opposed the mega project and those who supported it welcomed the decision, though for very different reasons, raises questions even at the very moment the project has been shelved.

Conservationists opposed the project bitterly, believing it, and the huge sea lice populations it would have supported, represented a real threat to struggling stocks of salmon and sea trout. There is ample evidence to support this view. That position was supported by State agency Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI). Nevertheless, BIM dismissed the link between damage to migratory salmonoids and sea lice despite a litany of international scientific reports confirming the link.

The project was dropped because the Government’s plan for aquaculture limits offshore fish farms to 5,000 to 7,000 tonnes. The decision is not by any means final, as expansion in the aquaculture sector is desireable and inevitable. That expansion faces many challenges — rising sea temperatures, ever more demanding environmental protection standards, regulation, and supervision. But most of all it faces a public concerned about industrial-scale animal production to feed a soaring world population. Hopefully, the next generation of salmon farms will allay some of these justified fears.