A chara, – I commend recent reporting by The Irish Times on the risks posed to native wild Atlantic salmon populations from the farmed salmon that have escaped from the Rosroe salmon farm in Killary Harbour (“Farmed salmon enter largest wild fishery in west of Ireland after Killary Harbour escape”, September 10th).
I fish many of our once great western lakes and rivers and have despaired over recent years to witness the cataclysmic decline in wild salmon and sea trout numbers. Their future preservation hangs on an ever-thinning thread.
The threats posed by farmed salmon escapees are principally two-fold.
First is the risk that they would interbreed with wild salmon endangering their unique genetics which, among other things, guide them back each year to their river of origin to breed. And second, there is the danger of farmed salmon spreading disease among wild fish.
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The risks of open sea-salmon farming are now too great and far exceed any commensurate benefit.
We must insist that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine works with the salmon farm industry to suspend open sea-salmon farming and replace it with land-based closed containment technologies – these are now available – so as to preserve and enhance Ireland’s commitment to the development of a sustainable agri-food sector and, in doing so, better protect our wild indigenous salmon and sea trout stocks. – Yours, etc,
JOHN GEARY,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.