Plans for a salmon farm on Loch Long have been granted an environmental licence after being welcomed as ‘innovative’ by SEPA.
But the proposals for Beinn Reithe still need planning permission, and there have been nearly 100 objections so far.
The site near Arrochar is one of two on Loch Long currently being targeted for fish farms – a trout farm at Ardentinny is being planned by Dawn Fresh.
SEPA granted a CAR licence yesterday for the project, which would be Scotland’s first semi-closed containment marine finfish farm, and afterwards Stewart Hawthorn, director of Loch Long Salmon said their approach had been ‘thorough but helpful’.
“This farming system has been operating successfully in Norway since 2014 and is now being deployed in the Faroes and Canada, but this is the first time it will be used in Scotland,” he said.
“This exemplar project provides an opportunity to show closer to home what is possible and to secure the future of the salmon farming industry in Scotland.
“It will reduce environmental impacts while continuing to support vital jobs and economies in rural Scotland.”
Jo Green, SEPA’s acting chief executive, said: “Semi-closed containment systems, such as that proposed by Loch Long Salmon, have the potential to play a significant role in enhanced sustainability through reduced medicine use and discharge.
“We will continue to encourage and support businesses across the sector to introduce environmentally innovative approaches to fish production.”
But objectors say a trial of the semi-closed system in Canada had to be halted, and have called for Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority to reject the planning application.
Argyll Fisheries Trust’s chairperson Jane Wright said in her objection that there were currently no fish farms on Loch Long and this should remain the case so it acts as. a ‘control’ to measure other lochs, while the noise and light pollution would be ‘very noticeable’.
“We would like to see this technology proven elsewhere in an ‘aquaculture zone’ rather than trialled in a pristine area,” she said.
“Problems have been experienced with this system in Canada and a trial has been halted.
“The plans attached to the application show an industrial style of development which we fell is wholly inappropriate for an unspoilt section of coastline in a national park.”
And the Argyll District Salmon Fishery Board said: “It has potential to cause further decline in wild salmon and sea trout populations, which are currently not meeting government defined conservation limits.
“While the proposed use of new technology has the potential to mitigate some of the risks associated with net pen salmon farming, we argue that it is important that this technology is deployed and tested in an appropriate area where potential impacts on wild salmonids are better understood.
“This would allow any advantages arising from this new technology to be properly assessed.”
There have so far been 92 objections and five comments in support of the plan.
Details are available on the national park authority website – the reference number is 2021/0357/DET.
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