Category: Salmon Fishing

The following item shows some maturity in the fish farming world at last.  The other major item which conventional salmon farming needs to address urgently is the food which they feed the salmon with.  How long can the ocean’s eco system survive with the vast tonnage of  wild fish being extracted to turn into fish meal?

“Scotland’s “wild salmon interests” and angling organisations have welcomed the “unprecedented statement” by Marine Harvest’s major shareholder John Fredriksen reportedly acknowledging that ‘many salmon farms could be inappropriately sited’. The comments made in July by the Norwegian oil and shipping tycoon (the world’s 104th richest man, also a keen fly fisherman) include the following statement: “I am concerned about the future for wild salmon. Fish farming should not be allowed in fjords with salmon rivers.” The Scottish salmon angling community fast took note of what they qualify as a “ground-breaking declaration” that ‘no salmon farms should be located within any sea lochs into which salmon rivers discharge’. “This statement from one of the most influential players in the salmon farming industry confirms what many of us have been telling the industry and its regulators for so many years and which the evidence now supports – namely, that some salmon farming may be located in sites which are incompatible with the sustainable management of healthy populations of wild salmon and sea trout,” commented Andrew Wallace, Director of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards and Policy Director of the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland. “The challenge now is to identify these sensitive sites and to get them moved”. Roger Brook, chairman of the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland (RAFTS), added that this “unequivocal acknowledgment” equated to stating that a “great majority of the marine farms are inappropriately located. We now eagerly await details of the industry’s plans to relocate the farms and indeed confirmation that the Executive is willing to support and facilitate such moves”. Meanwhile, the Norwegian Salmon Association (NSA) also welcomed the ‘brave comment’, and Irish anglers are also calling today (August 9th) the government to relocate some of the West of Ireland’s fish farms”

[tags]Marine Harvest, Norwegian Salmon Association, John Fredriksen, Salmon, Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland[/tags]