A PETITION against plans for the Sound of Jura’s first fish farm at Dounie, south of Crinan, has attracted 3,000 signatures.
Kilmelford-based Kames Fish Farming Ltd submitted an application in November for a SEPA licence for 12 circular cages, each 100m in circumference, to rear a maximum of 2,500 tonnes of fish to meet demand, create six jobs and secure other positions in the family business operating in Loch Melfort for 45 years.
However, a local campaign group called Friends of the Sound of Jura objects that the site is unsuitable, arguing that wildlife could be harmed by the industry’s ‘soaring’ use of pesticides to ‘unsuccessfully’ control sea lice, uneaten food and faecal effluent.