West coast salmon farms'in sensitive areas'

The Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland (RAFTS) has published a detailed map of west Highlands and Islands where they claim that more than half (57%) of the salmon farms in the area are located in the most important areas for wild salmon and sea trout.

Roger Brook of RAFTS said: “It is imperative that the salmon farming industry avoids those areas which are most damaging to wild salmon and sea trout. This Locational Guidance map is an evidence-based tool that pinpoints those areas.

“Rafts and other wild fisheries groups have argued for years that many fish farms are too close to migratory fish rivers, increasing the risk that sea lice released from fish farms will infect wild salmon and sea trout.”

Rafts has been responsible for the Scottish Government’s Managing Interactions Aquaculture Project (MIAP) on behalf of fishery trusts and boards since 2011. MIAP focused on interactions between salmon aquaculture with wild salmonids on Scotland’s west coast, from Argyll to West Sutherland and the Outer Hebrides.

The aim, the organisation says, is to identify areas that are particularly sensitive to wild salmon and sea trout and which the aquaculture industry should avoid if damage to wild stocks is to be minimised or avoided.

Brook said: “It should be of major concern to all those charged with managing and regulating salmon farms that the majority of existing farms are inappropriately sited from a wild fish perspective. Serious consideration should now be given to a selective relocation programme.”