Wild salmon – declining or increasing in Scottish rivers?
10th August 2019
Dear Voice for Arran,
About 10 years ago we were on Mull. We went on a trip to Iona, on a
fine motor vessel. As we passed the the circular lagoons housing the
‘farmed’ salmon, we noted the fish were leaping. The master said ‘they
are not leaping in joy, they are being irritated by ‘sea lice’.
I have wondered this since, as a doctor and surgeon with a pretty good
scientific training. When animals are ‘strained’ and thus end
‘stressed’, they are likely to have higher levels of catechol amines
in their blood, and later in their urine. That is adrenaline,
nor-adrenaline etc.
I understand that salmon returning from the Atlantic find their way to
the river of their birth by memory of its individual chemistry. What
if those salmon pick up more signals of distress than the clean waters
of the glens above?
A thought which I raised with an independent MSP for the Isles, Mr
Wilson.
Yours faithfully,
David Halpin FRCS
Kiln Shotts
Haytor
Newton Abbot
TQ13 9XR
Proposed Fish farm
27th August 2019
Dear Voice for Arran,
I am very disappointed with COAST.
They have many underwater pictures of Lamlash Bay showing the damage
done by trawlers, and now amazing underwater pictures of the bay,
showing how the bay has recovered and supports an incredible array of
flora and fauna.
All of this next to an existing fish farm?
Ricky McMaster