A caviar farm on Loch Fyne looks set to be given the go-ahead next week – despite over 5,000 people signing a petition in protest.
The Fynest Caviar Company Ltd says the plan for Ardkinglas Sawmill will create local jobs at the plant and a shop, boosting tourism and meeting an expanding UK demand for caviar.
Cairndow Community Council raised ethical issues and concerns about welfare, conservation and community benefit, while a petition from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was supported by more than 5,000 people.
PETA said the facility would be cruel, unjustifiable and inhumane, adding: “Intensive fish farms cause immense suffering to the fish confined there.
“In the wild, sturgeons live in open rivers and migrate vast distances upstream to breed. On fish farms, they are confined to tiny, severely crowded tanks, where they have no option but to spend their lives swimming in endless circles.
“As a result, they are highly susceptible to stress, aggression and disease as well as physical injuries such as fin damage.”
They also said waste water from the plant would contact toxic chemicals, and claimed there was a risk that non-native Siberian sturgeons could escape from the facility and then to the surrounding waterways.”
Planning officials say that these are issues for Marine Scotland though, while SEPA has not objected to the plan.
Argyll and Bute Council’s planning, protective services and licensing committee is recommended to approve the proposal when it meets in Lochgilphead next Wednesday.
A report states: “The scale and design of the proposed fish farm buildings is considered to be acceptable and in keeping with this location.
“The proposal is located within a Potential Development Area which is identified as a mixed-use site for business, housing and recreation.
“The proposal has an approved masterplan and the fish farm would be located within an area identified for commercial development.”
Fynest Caviar says sturgeon is vulnerable to overfishing and the plan would help reduce pressure on fish in the wild.
The UK market currently consumes 19 tons of caviar a year and the new plant would initially produce 1.5 tons, with the potential for this to be doubled.
In a statement to planners, the company says: “The process of removal from the tank, in an unconscious state, to death, is less than a minute and the fish stays unconscious through the process.
“These are large fish and we take great care in the dispatch and of each individual fish, this is not a production line as you would see in Scottish trout or salmon plants with their motorized processes.
“The business proposes to produce high quality caviar and sturgeon in a bespoke facility that uses a world-class operating system involving the efficient use of water, appropriate to the sensitive nature of the location.”
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