PROPOSALS to upgrade a fish farm on Loch Linnhe have been granted by The Highland Council despite a Lochaber councillor saying he was ‘deeply troubled’ by the application after objections from local fishery bodies.
At a meeting of the south planning committee this week, members approved Marine Harvest’s proposals to upgrade salmon pens at its Gorsten Salmon Farm, near Ardgour. Marine Harvest plans to replace the existing 20 square salmon farming pens with 12 larger pens within an extended boundary on the loch. The area planning manager reported ‘there have been cages on the site since the mid 1980s, so they are an established element of the landscape’.
Lochaber District Salmon Fishery Board and Lochaber Fisheries Trust formally objected to the proposals over concerns of the high level of sea lice found on wild salmon in surrounding rivers.