West coast of Scotland - is it cruising friendly?

Kelpie said:
Bit of a moot point in my experience... fish that have spent their whole lives feeding inert pellets are going to struggle to catch food in the wild, and there are plenty of seals circling every farm just waiting for an easy meal... I would be amazed if escaped salmon lasted even one week in the wild...
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I’ve sailed by many fish farms and never seen seals about. From what I’ve heard, they are seen off by farm staff, often with rifles.
 
Old Bumbulum said:
I very much doubt that.
Wood on his property is his, just like pheasants. Removal from there is theft. Off his property is another matter entirely.
These things only belong to someone whilst they remain on his property. When my neighbour's pheasants come onto my land they become mine, not his.
Those bailiffs couldn't prove who, if anyone the escaped salmon once belonged to unless they were tagged so theft cannot be an issue. However they probably did have the power to deal with illegal/unlicenced taking of fish which is somewhat different.
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Not at all Pheasants are wild animals and are game birds , if the owner could prove that he raised the pheasants and released them for sport there is an issue over ownership . as they could be tagged.
A fish farm is clearly the owner of the fish and can be easily recognized to other wild Salmon as they will be in a different phase of life
If a sheep truck carrying a load of sheep overturned on the motorway and the sheep ran everywhere it would be illegal
to grab a sheep and put it into you boot , unless you have some wellies :D
This is the same as so called wild deer , if your dog chases wild deer , there is no law stopping this as they are wild , if your dog chases deer on the hillside and they are managed by the estate for shooting , and they can prove the herd is officially owned , you dog is disturbing livestock
The law is perfectly clear on this matter if something was owned , escaped , ran , away, picked up , it still belongs t the owner if they can prove ownership.
 
Mataji said:
I’ve sailed by many fish farms and never seen seals about. From what I’ve heard, they are seen off by farm staff, often with rifles.
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Seals are protected in Scotland and it is against he law to disturb or move them especially the young, but Fish farms do have a license to shoot them if they are close , but they must have other ways the deter the seals as the shooting is the last resort, but I could imagine there are rogue shooters out there
 
I believe I read recently, that Scottish fish farms shot nine seals in the past year, which they are licensed to do, if the seals are presenting a danger to their cages. When you consider the huge and growing population of seals in Scottish waters, nine doesn't sound like a big loss. To give some perspective, I have seen 800 of the brutes lying on a single beach on the Monachs. Yes, I counted them.
 
moomba said:
If a sheep truck carrying a load of sheep overturned on the motorway and the sheep ran everywhere it would be illegal
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That is because sheep are livestock. Pheasants are not - they are explicitly excluded from the definition of livestock in The Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968 (Ch 34) and so it doesn't matter what tags you put on them - they belong to the landowner.
 
This is getting back to the schooldays, "If your next-door neighbour's peacock lays an egg in your garden, who does the egg belong to?"
 
Mataji said:
I’ve sailed by many fish farms and never seen seals about. From what I’ve heard, they are seen off by farm staff, often with rifles.
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And I spend 40hrs a week on fish farms and I see seals every day.
By the way no seal has been on shot on the site I work at in the time I have been there. But yes it does happen on some sites, after the farm manager has climbed a mountain of paperwork and implemented every other deterrent known to man.
 
The fish farm problem could be easily solved.
Do what they now do with lobsters. Rear millions in captivity for the first few weeks and then discharge them into the sea to be caught in the usual way. It would be less cruel and the salmon could demand a premium as free range.
 
mainsail1 said:
The fish farm problem could be easily solved.
Do what they now do with lobsters. Rear millions in captivity for the first few weeks and then discharge them into the sea to be caught in the usual way. It would be less cruel and the salmon could demand a premium as free range.
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Did you not know that they tried that on nearly every river in Scotland, fish are not easy to train. Round here many of the cages contain halibut, enormous fish that command an enormous price.
 
mainsail1 said:
The fish farm problem could be easily solved.
Do what they now do with lobsters. Rear millions in captivity for the first few weeks and then discharge them into the sea to be caught in the usual way. It would be less cruel and the salmon could demand a premium as free range.
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Which particular problem are you trying to solve? As has already been pointed out, fish farms used to be a problem when they were first sited in very sheltered locations. Now that they are almost all out in open water, what's the problem?
 
NormanS said:
Which particular problem are you trying to solve? As has already been pointed out, fish farms used to be a problem when they were first sited in very sheltered locations. Now that they are almost all out in open water, what's the problem?
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There are still several, sure they are cleaning up the act, but its not all roses yet.

Eigg has rejected (a few times) the offers from fish farms to place a pen or 2 near the island.
At one presentation the representative was proudly touting their fact that for 1.1 tonnes of feed they got 1 tonne of fish back. Now, just what else are those fish eating and what is starving because of it.
There is still a significant fatality rate (obviously they will try to minimise it) but that represents both waste in the feed supply chain and local pollution.
The offers of local jobs have (at the Muck site) not actually ended up providing employment for original locals, but some that have moved in to work there. Could be good, small communities can usually benefit from growth.
The balance of wealth created vs wealth retained at the sites is also a concern, multi-national companies making millions where the locals get thousands..

The problem with all relatively new processes is that they are always playing catch-up to the problems that exist. For some time after they will still be tainted with an out of date brush, but the onus is on them to prove improvements.
 
From what I have seen over the last two seasons sailing the West Coast fish farms are alway situated in beautiful Lochs or sheltered bays.
Have you no thought for the poor salmon, living an unnatural life of imprisonment?
 
mainsail1 said:
From what I have seen over the last two seasons sailing the West Coast fish farms are alway situated in beautiful Lochs or sheltered bays.
Have you no thought for the poor salmon, living an unnatural life of imprisonment?
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But did they stop you using the Loch or anchoring? So far none have for me, Lock Spelve on Mull has big mussel farms and one can still access the traditional anchorages and some others, similarly around Shuna, all the anchorages are still free. Factory farming is a requirement to feed conurbations of millions in an efficient manner.
 
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