S&TA warns against increase tonnage in Loch Etive farm

Dawnfresh Farming Limited has reapplied for planning permission for a new rainbow trout farm in Loch Etive, near Oban.

This farm would increase the tonnage of rainbow trout, adding to the applicant’s five existing farms on Loch Etive. In a press release, the S&TA(S) says it believes that it constitutes a significant and unacceptable escalation of fish-farming activity on Loch Etive. Hughie Campbell Adamson, Chairman of S&TA(S), said:

“The rainbow trout farms in Loch Etive have a poor record for containing their stock. There have been numerous escapes in the past. These large and voracious alien trout run up the River Awe where inevitably they eat the juvenile salmon, thus severely depleting the stocks of the native fish. There is a genuine risk that should this predation not just continue but increase we shall see the further demise of one of Scotland’s great salmon rivers.”