The Federation of Irish Salmon and Seatrout Anglers fear that the salmon and seatrout population running in Donegal Bay has been put in jeopardy if not wiped out by the same cause which killed the 300,000 fish farmed salmon as first reported on Friday last. Since then conflicting reasons for the kill has been reported from both the Department of the Marine and the fish farm companies. "It is vital that the true reason for this kill is established immediately, so that the correct remedial action can be taken to save our already very scarce wild salmonid stock" said the FISSTA spokesperson.
The Federation renewed their call today, for an independent inquiry, which they first called for last September 2002 and once again in January 2003 after the June 2002 fish kill in Inver Bay, Co. Donegal, where at least 50,000 mature farmed salmon have been decomposing on the sea-bed for over 13 months. It is not surprising that this present fish kill is in the same area as the last incident which has been allowed to go without any adequate state investigation or sanction. Local anglers fear that the dredging of this area by a trawler may have disturbed the decomposing fish. Despite the report in the Derry People and Donegal News of August 10th 2002 being informed that "Department to issue court proceedings against fish farm" we have yet to hear of anything being done to avoid a repeat of another dumping to date. Indeed, the response from the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources at that time was to appoint Mr Gallagher Director Ocean Farm, the fish farm involved, to the state Board of Bord Iascaigh Mhara. During this time the company denied that dead fish had escaped into the bay, and the Daniel Browne report of the 30th July 2002 in the Donegal Democrat quoted Mr Gallagher as saying "It is devious to suggest that the operators in the bay would behave like that; it would make no sense as it is in our interest to ensure the water quality is of the highest quality. It is someone taking a potshot at us" he said. Following this statement the Donegal Democrat of the 1st August 2002 quoted the Dept of the Marine as being "not happy" as a "significant" number of fish were lying decomposing at the bottom of Inver Bay. The late Prof Graham Shaw, Chairman of SOS said on 12th August last year that "This is a major disaster, but one which was entirely predictable. Sea farming of salmon and rainbow trout, as currently practised, is unsustainable. The close confinement of hundreds of thousands of farmed fish in a small area is a recipe for infection by disease and parasites. "