Salmon farm pays out £13k after fish escape

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 23:04

A SCOTTISH river board has won a landmark legal battle against a fish farming company following an escape of farmed salmon on a tributary to one of the country's most popular angling rivers.

In an unprecedented move, a major fish farming company has paid compensation to the Forth District Salmon Fishery Board after the escape of juvenile salmon from a freshwater farm on the River Devon.

And yesterday, the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards in Scotland said the legal victory should act as a warning to other freshwater fish farms, where the number of escapes are said to be rising.

The young fish were discovered on the tributary to the Forth last September by the River Forth Fisheries Trust at a site near the Yetts of Muckhart in Clackmannanshire, downstream from a fish farm operated by Mainstream Scotland, part of the giant Norwegian salmon company Cermaq.

A spokesman for the board said an out-of-court settlement of 13,000 had been reached.

"The company initially refused to accept the fish originated from its facility – even though the location at Fossaway Bridge is upstream of a waterfall that is impassable to wild salmon.

"Following the intervention of Fish Legal – formerly known as the Anglers' Conservation Association – Mainstream has now accepted liability and, in an out-of-court settlement, paid more than 13,000 to cover both the initial expenses incurred by the board and the costs of a clear-up operation."

Patrick Fothringham, the director of the fishery board, said: "The company maintains that it was adhering to the salmon farming industry's much-vaunted code of good practice.

"If indeed it was, the fish still managed to escape. This suggests that, as many of us have argued for years, this code falls far short of being fit for purpose in terms of minimising the impact on wild fish.

"Escapes of farmed salmon carry the inherent threat of spreading disease and the real threat of diluting the genetics of wild fish."

Andrew Wallace, the managing director of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, insisted there had been a marked reduction in escapes of farmed salmon from sea farming cages over the past two years.