Sir, – I am dismayed that a huge salmon farm is being considered for Ballinakill Bay (“Application for large salmon farm beside wild salmon rivers in Connemara ‘flawed’”, News, August 2nd). Since the introduction of fish farms in the late 1980s, from west Cork to Donegal, the stocks of wild salmon and seatrout in these areas have plummeted.
This is not mere coincidence but as a direct result of these farms – mainly due to infestations of sealice, emanating from salmon pens.
Refusing permission for any further development of these farms would be a step in the right direction. We must act now, before our already greatly reduced annual run of wild salmon and seatrout, is annihilated. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD GELLETLIE,
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Ashford,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I refer to Monday’s coverage on open-net salmon farming (“Row over proposed Connemara fish farm goes to heart of bigger conflict”, News, August 2nd).
It is startling that the effects, both within the farms as well as on our diminishing native populations, continue to be denied even though we are facing the greatest biodiversity crisis of our time.
It would serve us all well to accept that there is no inherent right to food on demand, at any time of year, for a price that is in no way commensurate to the sustainable and ethical production of that food and no consideration for seasonality or the natural order of things.
It is surely time for us, the consumer, to wake up and shout stop before it is too late. – Yours, etc,
MARY CRILLY,
Dunleer, Co Louth.
