Members of the community of Arran have been holding a peaceful protest over the last few weeks at Millstone Point, to oppose the (revised) application for a salmon farm by the Scottish Salmon Co. Each weekend supporters of the Friends of Millstone Point campaign have spent a night camping at the spot and will continue this until the end of the NAC planning consultation period on 9th November. Residents and visitors are being invited to walk out to the point and place a stone from Millstone beach on the community protest cairn.
Here are some of the ways we can protest:
1. Volunteer to camp out at the point, no more than two tents/households at a time (send us a message at https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/lovemillstonepoint and we will forward to Sue Ash who is coordinating)
2. Place a stone on the cairn for yourself and everyone else you know who supports the protest but can’t get to Millstone Point.
3. Write to NAC via their planning portal (reference: 19/00609) by 9th November to register your objection. You don’t have to repeat previous objections but it is important you object to the latest proposal for 12x 120m circumference salmon cages. We will post a list of key points on www.lovemillstonepoint.com
4. Take photos of yourself at Millstone Point or, if you can’t make it out, take a photo of yourself with a stone on your local beach and post it on social media using the hash tag #lovemillstonepoint
5. Share posts on social media and encourage friends to sign the petition.
If you are one of the 200 plus who objected last time, please also note it’s still absolutely vital to object again stating that your previous objection still stands and with any new additional objections in the light of the amended planning application and the recent 50,000 salmon escapee event from North Carradale .
As one campaigner said recently:
“If there was ever any doubt, the escape of these poor diseased factory farmed fish, potentially compromising the genetic make up of the already threatened wild salmon is an outcome that should never be risked.
Wild salmon are already heading for extinction because of the spread of the factory salmon farm pollution, lice and disease.
The intensive salmon farm industry is already recording premature deaths at record levels, which have more than quadrupled over the past 18 years, as can be seen from SEPA’s own figures which show 13.5% of the annual harvest dying prematurely in 2019, compared to 3.1% in 2002. This factory salmon farm would be unsustainable and hugely polluting. We must protect wild salmon, our seas and our planet’s future.”
The campaign was also featured in a recent article in The National which you can see here.