Dead fish in Connemara lake are linked to salmon hatchery

The Western Regional Fisheries Board said yesterday that "substantial" numbers of dead fish had been found in Derryclare Lake, Connemara.

The incident has been traced to a hatchery at Derryclare which produces salmon smolts on a commercial basis. The board has taken samples which, it said, confirmed the link with the hatchery, run by Murpet Fish, a Norwegian-owned company.

The chairman of the Save Our Sea Trout campaign, Dr Graham Shaw, said the dead fish were washed into the lake when a hatchery sump was being cleaned, exposing wild fish in the system to potential disease.