Nearly 50,000 salmon escape from fish farm in Argyll 

Nearly 50,000 salmon escaped from a fish farm after four of its pens were damaged during Storm Ellen.  

The North Carradale farm in Argyll was badly hit by the bad weather, which broke mooring ropes attaching the pens to the seabed. 

Another 30,000 salmon also died in the incident, while 125,000 were caught and harvested. 

There will now be concerns about the farmed salmon breeding with their wild counterparts. 

Farmed fish are bred to grow big and fast, which makes then less suited to wild environments where fitness is central to survival. 

Corin Smith, head of campaign group Inside Scottish Salmon Feedlots, said: ‘For wild Scottish Atlantic salmon on the west coast of Scotland this is the ecological equivalent of an oil tanker running aground. 

‘The impacts of an escape of farmed salmon from this facility on this scale could finally wipe out, through interbreeding and introducing disease and genetic weaknesses, the tiny population (est 20,000) of genuinely wild Scottish salmon that remain on the west coast.

‘Escaped farmed salmon need to be removed from the wild urgently. Those that may catch them by accident need to beware that they may not be safe to eat.’ 

The Norwegian seafood company Mowi told the BBC that an inspection by divers found mooring ropes had broken in four of the 10 pens after the incident on August 20. 

The farm originally contained 550,700 salmon.  

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said it was ‘concerned’ about what had happened. 

A spokesman said: ‘Whilst we are confident that marine pens have been returned to their authorised position and there was no significant pollution, we are liaising with Mowi and Marine Scotland, who have responsibility for fish escapes and their reporting.’