proposed salmon farm near the Cuan Sound

[Ewan G Kennedy]

I've been horrified to read the pre-application report for the proposed relocation of an existing salmon farm in Seil Sound to a point further South, opposite the entrance to the Cuan, which those familiar with Argyll will know is one of the main routes used by yachts and working craft. I've posted up details on www.scottishboating.blogspot.com.

 

[Doghousekeeper]

Why "horrified"?

I can't see a problem with the proposal. It's hardly an obstacle to navigation at the proposed new site

And "exclusion zone"? Not really. Come one, there's plenty of room and no need for this hysteria

(by the way, I DO know the area very well, and I DONT work for the fish farm

 

[Sgeir]

I've enjoyed Ewan's blog, and understand and sympathise with his point of view concerning the unsightliness of fish farms. I also recognise that there are genuine concerns about waste and detritus, but I think we just have to get on with the business of managing how we share the seas with other users and interest groups, having heed for natural marine species and biodiversity. Sea stocks have been grossly overfished, and so my assumption is that sustainable aquaculture has to be permanently factored in for the future. Whether or not this project is a "best practice" sustainable fish farm, I am not qualified to have an opinion on.

From a purely sailing point of view, I don't think this particular FF is a big issue for local sailors as access to the Cuan and Seil Sounds is not obstructed to any significant extent from most directions. This particular farm looks to be in deep water and is not therefore reducing anchorage access, which has been, and remains, a significant problem in some areas.

Aside from the ecology questions, there are three fish farm issues that concern me purely as a leisure sailor;
firstly, they should not be in traditional anchorages (and neither should most moorings in my view);
secondly, they should all be properly lit during the hours of darkness; and,
thirdly, the fish farm operators should be legally obliged to remove all anchors, chains, equipment and installations from the seabed at the end of a project (this should be forward-financed before permission is granted by the Crown Estates imho), with punitive fines for non-compliance.

 

[agurney]

If it's the farm I'm familiar with, it's only moving about a kilometre south of its current position (just south of Ardmaddy) and I'm not convinced the plan is to increase in size.

The biggest problem I have with the existing fish farm is the mess of tyres they've left on the shore just south of the pier. I certainly don't like the sound of the barge if it's anything like the NW Shuna one.

 

[webcraft]

I certainly don't like the sound of the barge if it's anything like the NW Shuna one.

It's a bit horrible isn't it? There ought to be some sort of ascetics-related planning applied to fish farm structures. On our first full day in Norway this Summer sailing up the inner lead towards Bergen we came across a pretty little floating house which puzzled me until I realised it was part of a fish farm, the equivalent of the grey monstrosity at the North end of Shuna but with a modicum of taste and common sense applied.


- W

 

[adrianmorgan]

I've been horrified to read the pre-application report for the proposed relocation of an existing salmon farm in Seil Sound to a point further South, opposite the entrance to the Cuan, which those familiar with Argyll will know is one of the main routes used by yachts and working craft. I've posted up details on www.scottishboating.blogspot.com.

Fish farms are the sacred cows of the Highlands, providing miserable subsistence-level, brutal employment, looking after miserable, unnatural flabby so-called salmon, which escape to ruin the indigenous salmon stocks, pollute the waters underneath the cages and whose lice wreck the sea trout in the estuaries. Most of the profits go to Norway.

They are here to stay, because they provide employment of a sort in a deprived area and, along with whisky, are a rare jewel in Scotland's export crown. But at what a cost to wild stocks? And our notions of humanity?

Nobody needs salmon. It is a protein too far. Most of it goes for smoked salmon, hardly a basic commodity. Farming salmon is not helping to allevate our chronic over fishing problem. That is slowly being tackled by the EU in its own convoluted way and the likes of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's campaign to stop fish discards.

Salmon farming is far more cruel than battery chicken farming, caging a wild creature, depriving it of freedom and denying it the one thing it was born for: to migrate up the river of its birth. Would you believe the RSPCA accredit some farmed salmon as Freedom Food! In a cage? Fed by a machine? Sucked up in a giant vacuum cleaner and bashed on the head... Free? It's a perversion of our language. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals indeed. Pah!

From a yachtsman's point of view salmon farms clog up prime anchoring sites, are smelly, distressing to animal lovers, seal scarers keep you awake all night, and I for one would not want to be tacking up Cuan Sound in a strong wind, when I needed every inch of clear water.

They do occasionally however provide a secure mooring in extremis, as unless the whole caboodle drifts away, you can be pretty secure. But that's about the only advantage I can see.

 

[savageseadog]

My son went on an unsuccessful fly fishing trip around the West Coast of Scotland a year or two back. Local lore says that there are few fish in the rivers and the salmon farms are to blame.

 

[Quandary]

There used to be a fantastic anchorage quite close to there, beautiful remote spot with shelter, good depths and fantastic scenery, so they had a bright idea and stuck a marina there and it was lost for ever. Much more serious and long lasting act of vandalism than moving the fish farm, and just so some rich people from elsewhere could store their toys for use about once a year, at least fish farming does produce food.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

My son went on an unsuccessful fly fishing trip around the West Coast of Scotland a year or two back. Local lore says that there are few fish in the rivers and the salmon farms are to blame.

I've often been puzzled by the sudden decline in sea trout numbers, but I don't think it can be due to salmon farms - not entirely, anyway. The runs into Corruisk and Camasunary rivers in Skye used to be spectacular up to the seventies/eighties, and disappeared almost totally - you can rule out overfishing (they were fished in exactly the same way, rod and fly) and fish farms - there aren't any in the area. Other possible factors are seals (very large numbers) and possibly overfishing of the prawns in the area - which started just before the decline. (They were an 'unknown' resource before, and may have been what the sea trout were feeding on.)

 

[agurney]

There used to be a fantastic anchorage quite close to there, beautiful remote spot with shelter, good depths and fantastic scenery, so they had a bright idea and stuck a marina there and it was lost for ever. Much more serious and long lasting act of vandalism than moving the fish farm, and just so some rich people from elsewhere could store their toys for use about once a year, at least fish farming does produce food.

I'm not rich and I use my boat more than once a year. The marina does support local jobs, but agreed, it changed a lovely spot and not necessarily for the better. I suppose the same could be said for Crinan.

 

[Quandary]

I'm not rich and I use my boat more than once a year. The marina does support local jobs, but agreed, it changed a lovely spot and not necessarily for the better. I suppose the same could be said for Crinan.

If you are referring to the hotel, it is definitely the ugliest in Scotland, the canal though is much as it was after its last major improvement in the mid. 19th. century so we have got time to get used to how it looks, and it is useful (and keeps me in beer money).

 

[webcraft]

. . . I for one would not want to be tacking up Cuan Sound in a strong wind, when I needed every inch of clear water.

The fish farm is in Seil Sound, not Cuan Sound - and surely you can tak up a channel four cables or more wide?

The main problem with farmed salmon is that - according to HFW - it takes three pounds of wild fish to create one pound of farmed salmon.

ARTICLE

- W

 

[Seajet]

I don't know much about fish farms being a southern type, but I certainly go along with the comments re. the RSPCA; a friend had 'work experience' with them...

I'd better not say too much except I don't personally think they are the best dog or cat charity to donate to, and they have a remarkably splendid HQ in a large mansion in the most sought-after part of Horsham...

 

[Ubergeekian]

If you are referring to the hotel, it is definitely the ugliest in Scotland, the canal though is much as it was after its last major improvement in the mid. 19th. century so we have got time to get used to how it looks, and it is useful (and keeps me in beer money).

From the CCC Sailing Directions, 1937 Edition, p115

Loch Crinan - Anchorages

Crinan Harbour ... The best anchorage is to the W. of the canal, on the E. side of Eilean na Vain, in the little bay beside the lock, keeping well off the shore, in 2 faths. This bay is very shoal on the Vain Island side, so one should keep over to the Crinan side, and not too far up the gut. Well sheltered.​

And here's what that well sheltered anchorage looks like today:

PS Don't you like that bit about "keeping well offshore ... keep over to the Crinan side". Very clear!

 

[Quandary]

What UberG illustrates is not the worst because there are sheltered solitary anchorages close by, though moorings are starting to appear in most of the Loch Craignish bays. Crinan Yachts is a working boatyard and so far the marina solution has been successfully resisted, there are much worse places.
We are shi**ing in our own nest and the change is accellerating massively, there are just too many yachts up here these days, they are a bigger problem than fish farms. It used to be so wonderful when you could anchor in a quiet bay, row ashore and go to the pub for a pint. You can find the solitude still, but it will be a long long way from any pub. South Coasters and even younger Clyde yachties think it is good because of what they compare it with, but I was coming this way in the seventies when the only permanent moorings you saw were used by locals.
I am a real snob, eh?

 

[webcraft]

It used to be so wonderful when you could anchor in a quiet bay, row ashore and go to the pub for a pint.

Much better for the pub though if they put a dozen moorings down.

- W

 

[biscuit]

I absolutely concur with Adran Morgan's contribution regarding the nauseating practice of salmon farming.
One added barbarism is the use of live fish carriers. If you arent familiar with these, they are the marine equivalent of council drain cleaners: Vessels equipped with huge holding tanks, and a gantry with a wide bore hose, through which the fish are sucked up in quantity straight from the pens, to be shipped off live to the processing plants.
Ther is a small fleet of these ships, frequently seen on the Scottish West Coast, Norwegian owned, I believe.

 

[Quandary]

Yea, trawling is a so much more gentle process, and if you don't want them you can tip them back in to the sea.
I am afraid I am much too selfish to give up eating fish.