Significant numbers of farmed salmon, believed to have escaped from a fish farm in Killary harbour in northern Connemara, have spread to prime angling rivers over a wide area of the west of Ireland.
The numbers of fish, the large distances they have covered since the incident happened at the Mannin Bay Salmon Company facility on August 11th, and indications many are diseased have angered rod anglers. One prominent anglers’ representative said the incident highlighted an ongoing issue of lack of effective regulation in the salmon farming sector.
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) this week said the escaped salmon “pose a significant risk to wild Atlantic salmon populations” because of genetic mixing and other pressures on native stocks. It also confirmed it was not formally notified of the escape within the mandatory 24-hour period.
Salmon farm operators are required to report any “abnormal losses” within 24 hours. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 fish escaped after a boat tore a net in rough sea conditions.
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The Irish Times confirmed on Wednesday that farmed fish were found in the nearby Delphi and Erriff rivers. Since then they have been found in the Dawros river, which is a considerable distance away, coming out of Kylemore lakes and running into Ballinakill Bay.
One angler said he had seen six fish taken out within a short period there. “They are stunted with small heads, and you can see the dye in their mouths that they are fed to make their skin pink.”
Other fish have been found in the Bunowen and Carrowiskey rivers, with unconfirmed reports of some being found in the Owenmore river some 70km away – all of which are in Co Mayo.
“The scary thing is angling pressure is low coming near the end of the season yet on Wednesday within 15 minutes I caught two and lost two at the net. You could clearly see they were farmed,” said chairman of Dawros Anglers Seamus O’Neill.
He said their concern was that wild salmon numbers were declining everywhere. “Less wild fish are coming back to spawn. This is the last thing any river needs – let alone the Dawros.”
He added: “Three years ago we had farmed salmon – confirmed by IFI to be of farmed origin – enter the Dawros river. On that occasion no fish farm had reported an escape to either the Department [of Agriculture, Food and the Marine] or IFI. Reporting an escape within 24 hours is a condition on their licence. It’s a totally unregulated business.”
Mr O’Neill said he understood draft nets could not be deployed as planned to recover escapees because the draft season was over and this would have required a bylaw introduced by the Minister for Agriculture; “and here we are 10 days later; nothing is being done”.
Experts had predicted it would be three to five weeks before the farmed salmon would go into freshwater rivers but this has proved to be incorrect. As a consequence Dawros anglers were trying to get as many of its members out over the weekend in an effort to remove the fish, tag them and forward them to the IFI. “That is all we can do; we’re trying to fish them out,” said Mr O’Neill.
The Department said on Friday, following notification from the licensee there had been an escape of salmon, its marine engineers inspected the site on August 15th. “The Department is currently reviewing the report of this inspection. A report has also been requested from The Marine Institute, as the Department’s scientific adviser. The Department will, in the first instance, be discussing these reports with the licensee. Once all necessary reports have been received, the Department will review the information available to determine if there has been a breach of any licensing conditions,” a spokesman said.
Meanwhile the IFI said it was continuing to monitor for any escaped fish at local rivers in Galway, and at its research trapping facilities in the National Salmonid Index Catchment on the Erriff. “Identification of these farmed salmon mixing among wild stocks can be challenging due to the lack of clear markers identifying farmed fish,” it said.
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