The West Coast of Ireland is to pay host to the biggest salmon farm in the UK. Bigger than all the output from the present UK farms.

Now if we wait a few years to see what it does to their salmon and seatrout stocks, maybe, just maybe we will be able to ascertian if the lice etc is the problem to our wild fish stocks.

Unfortunately by then it will be too late for the West Coast of Ireland fisheries. This I guess is what it will take to convince a very few die hards of the problems that salmon fish farms cause. But no doubt there won't be enough evidence

Read all about here: Massive Aran fish farm would create 500 new jobs | Connacht Tribune | galwaynews.ie

There have been salmon farms on the West coast of Ireland for many years. Their arrival coincided with the collapse of sea trout stocks which were the staple of so many fisheries along that coast. To give you one example, Delphi's salmon ranching scheme, which you may be aware of, was developed in response to this - previously it was mainly known as a sea trout fishery.

There have been a few instances where salmon farms have ceased operation either temporarily of permanently, and the sea trout population has seen a more or less immediate recovery. Yet the fish farmers continue to deny any links between the presence of fish farms and the loss of sea trout.

Tricky investment too... certinly on the jellyfish plagued Antrim coast:

The Antrim coast-based Northern Salmon Company Ltd has been relaunched as Glenarm Organic Salmon and is in the process of drawing up expansion plans, according to managing director John Russell.

The company lost more than £1m when billions of mauve stinger jellyfish descended on salmon cages in Glenarm Bay and Red Bay in November 2007, killing the entire stock of premium salmon, and was unsuccessful in its bid to secure a rescue package from the Northern Ireland |Executive. But almost two years on, the company boasts a new name and new ownership.

Read more: Investors took the sting out of salmon farm loss - Business News, Business - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

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Save the softmouth trout

I've seen the damage salmon farms can do on the west coast of Ireland. From this article it looks as if the farm will be more than 10 miles from the mainland so perhaps it won't have the same detrimental effect as other farms which are located in the sheltered bays next to the river estuarys.

FYI kingfisher, The west of Ireland isn't part of the UK

Cheers
JJ

figure of speech, sorry if it upsets our cousins across the wee pond thought we were all in this together when it comes to salmon farms
It is certainley by far the biggest off Ireland then

could not agree more.

Not in the least bit upset.... I just thought i'd give ya a wee geography lesson

All the best..
JJ

Stop eating farmed salmon ... and encourage others to do the same. There are tremendous private (and wealthy) estates in the West ... all more or less dependant on Salmon, sea trout such as Inagh, Delphi, Kylemore, Ballinahynch, etc ... What are they doing? What's their viewpoint on this? It will run them to the ground.
J.J.