Dear editor:
The salmon “Bradán” holds a very special place among the Irish in folklore and culture. We have some of the best natural spawning and fishing grounds in western Europe. The spin-off spending from angling is vital to the survival of many tourist and local economies in the west. As an outdoor enthusiast I have to support the 2,000 people who marched through Galway city in protest at plans by Bord Iaschaigh Mhara to locate a €100 million fish farm on the Galway Bay side of the Aran Islands.
This project could destroy wild salmon stocks in the region and the toxic cloud from seven million caged salmon with all that faeces, chemicals, and lice is not sustainable or sensible.
The fish farm is proposed as two, possibly three cage sites of about 180 hectares each. That sounds like a lot of space…but not if you are an Atlantic salmon whose natural habitat is from Ireland to Greenland, an area of about 2000 square miles…
Galway Advertiser. 07/03/2013. Read the article ‘Salmon farm is cloud cuckoo’
