IRISH WILDLIFE TRUST OBJECTS TO GALWAY BAY FISH FARM

Date Published: 12-Dec-2012

The Irish Wildlife Trust is objecting to plans to build a major fish farm in Galway Bay.

Bord Iascaigh Mhara has applied for a deep sea salmon farming licence at a site roughly 6 kilometres off Inis Oírr, which has the potential to create hundreds of jobs.

The IWT claims the fish farm is not sustainable because of the potential for infestation of wild salmon with salmon that are breeding in the fish farm.

The organisation also claims Galway Bay does not have the capacity to assimilate the quantaties of pollution caused by fish excreta and waste food.

BIM says its environmental impact statement addresses these issues, and the site was chosen because the high waves will keep Galway Bay free of any fish excretion.

However, Irish wildlife trust campaigns officer Pádraic Fogarty says the EIS statement is simply not credible in asserting there will be no negative impacts from the development.