Reported escape of between 60,000 and 80,000 large salmon

I've just found out about this.
http://bantryblog.wordpress.com/2014/02 ... e-details/
http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment ... w&id=15740

From BIM website,

'Preventing salmon escapes

The Irish salmon farming industry has an excellent track record in preventing escapes, and Irish farmers use structures designed to prevent them.

While the risk of an escape is small, the risk of consequences for wild fish is also very small. The Marine Institute has carried out large-scale studies that have shown that there has been no impact on wild stocks due to interbreeding (McGinnty et al., 2003 and McGinnity et al., 2009)

BIM will regularly inspect the farm to ensure that its equipment is robust and properly maintained. We will also require the operator to have recapture measures in place in the event that any fish do escape, including in the event of any emergency'

not good having them vermin swimming with wild fish.

Inland Fisheries Ireland:
Guidelines for Anglers that suspect they have recaptured an escaped Farmed Salmon

1. Do not return the salmon to the water.
2. Tag the salmon with rod or commercial tags issued with your licence under the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Regulations. (Blue, brown, red, white)
3. Contact IFI immediately and report where you caught the farmed salmon (estuary/river/lake).
4. Freeze the salmon whole and IFI will assist with the identification process.
5. If the Salmon is identified as a recaptured farm escaped salmon, your tag will be replaced.

Blackrock +353 1 2787022
Clonmel +353 52 6180055
Macroom +353 26 41221
Limerick +353 61 300238
Galway +353 91 563118
Ballina +353 96 22788
Ballyshannon +353 71 9851435

Please be advised that farmed salmon may be the subject of various treatments and may not be suitable for human consumption.

Signs that you may have caught a Farmed Salmon
1.Rounded Head

2.Damaged Fins
3.Missing or Partial Gill Plates
4.Unusual Spotting

Wouldn't surprise me if the government reimbursed the Salmon farms ahead of people that had their home destroyed by the floods and storms

they seem to always sort out the cages no matter what - it must be written into the agreements at set up etc.

I've just found out about this.
http://bantryblog.wordpress.com/2014/02 ... e-details/
http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment ... w&id=15740

From BIM website,

'Preventing salmon escapes

The Irish salmon farming industry has an excellent track record in preventing escapes, and Irish farmers use structures designed to prevent them.

While the risk of an escape is small, the risk of consequences for wild fish is also very small. The Marine Institute has carried out large-scale studies that have shown that there has been no impact on wild stocks due to interbreeding (McGinnty et al., 2003 and McGinnity et al., 2009)

BIM will regularly inspect the farm to ensure that its equipment is robust and properly maintained. We will also require the operator to have recapture measures in place in the event that any fish do escape, including in the event of any emergency'

BIM up to their usual tricks. McGinnity et al actually found that when farmed salmon breed with wild salmon they do in fact cause a reduction in survival. BIM also ignored the paper by Clifford et al (1997) which showed that following a large escape of salmon in Lough Swilly, 18% of juvenile salmon in the Crana River nearby were of farmed origin. So there is evidence there of interaction following escapes in the past.

On the 20th of January (around that date) BIM put out a statement condemning opponent's "speculation" about escapes during the storms as "scaremongering". Less than 2 weeks later, the incident in Bantry Bay happened. 6 or 7 weeks later, we're still waiting to be told exactly how many fish escaped. How are those recapture measures going???

at least the number of fish lost from the cages will be made public, unlike the counts from all the fish counters operated by ifi,they even have a wounderful website with no information on it dating from 2008!!! could somebody explain why this is so ?

at least the number of fish lost from the cages will be made public, unlike the counts from all the fish counters operated by ifi,they even have a wounderful website with no information on it dating from 2008!!! could somebody explain why this is so ?

I don't know joyster, I'm not privy to that info myself but it should be publicly available, at least for previous years, if not the current year.

It has taken several parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests, and the department has still not given any figures for mortalities and escapes in Bantry. Surely by now they have recovered and counted the morts, and know the number of escapes, yet they refuse to supply the information to date. Could somebody explain why this is so?

By the way, you're not Sean Gavin by any chance? You have a very similar posting style to him on fb, where he tries to divert attention away from problems with salmon farms by attacking angling/IFI... it's uncanny actually.

hi bradan,there are no pubicly available figures available for any of the ifi counters nor has there ever been!!! as a person working in the fish farming industry, i can tell you that any loss of fish has to be notified asap to the authorities and i would be amazed if the relevent authorities do not have figures provided by the farm .
if the authorities are so disenclined to provide the numbers of fish lost from the farm, then the question should also be asked as to why they are also disenclined to supply the results from the counters also.

Yes, losses are supposed to be notified to the authorities immediately. In this case, the minister has simply refused to give an answer, despite being legally obliged to do so by the asking of questions in the Dail.
Re counter figures, have you any correspondence from the government/IFI refusing to provide you with counter figures? If you have then why not post it here to show such a refusal? While they may not be on a website they should be available on request. (I think they should be, by the way). If you don't have any such correspondence, or haven't asked a TD to obtain the figures through a Dail question, then cribbing that they are not on a website is not really a valid point - either you've made efforts to obtain them or you haven't. If you have, I challenge you to put the correspondence on here to prove it. And if you haven't, then go ahead and tell us how you get on.

By the way, I note you didn't deny you were Sean Gavin...

Very interesting about the fish counters, seen as it's public money spent building we have the right to know the stats...

hi bradan, firstly my name is not sean gavin whoever he is.se condly, i am not cribbing that the figures are not available i am woundering does anyone know why. the only enquiry i have made was to a fishery officer i know and he told me that the figures are for scientific purposes only.the loughs agency has a great site that gives weekly updates on all their counters , so why cant the ifi do this?

hi bradan, firstly my name is not sean gavin whoever he is.se condly, i am not cribbing that the figures are not available i am woundering does anyone know why. the only enquiry i have made was to a fishery officer i know and he told me that the figures are for scientific purposes only.the loughs agency has a great site that gives weekly updates on all their counters , so why cant the ifi do this?

Well the figures are for scientific purposes only, but that doesn't mean they aren't available on request. Speaking to a fishery officer you know doesn't really constitute a formal request, a FO wouldn't have the authority to release data to the public. So why don't you actually write a letter and request the data.

I'll give you one reason there won't ever be weekly updates on fish counter data - making data available in that time frame basically tells poachers when the fish are running, and would allow them to target rivers where they know fish are running. That would be foolish in the extreme. For that reason I know that counter data isn't provided until after the fact. Can you provide the link to where the Loughs Agency provide weekly updates, as all I can find on their site is the annual counts up to 2011, and a "latest count" where the data is 1 Jan this year, so I presume this is the total count for 2013...

IFI is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, like any other public agency. If you really wanted the data you wouldn't have any problem getting it.

for anyone intersted, i have jst obtained the link from the ifi to access the counter figures, they are available under the publications section of their ste and then go to the reports of the scientific commitee,all the counter numbers are there,the only ommision are the catch returns on a lot of the reports..pity. otherwise thanky to the ifi.

It appears the escape was much larger than first feared. 230,000 salmon unaccounted for!
Why it took almost 2 months to provide the figures is not clear.

http://bantryblog.wordpress.com/2014/03 ... rm-escape/