A CONTROVERSIA’ Loch Etive fish farm can expand its cage sizes only if it keeps to existing trout biomass, Argyll and Bute Council has decided, writes Sandy Neil.
Councillors granted planning permission for Scotland’s largest producer of farmed trout, Dawnfresh, to move its Etive 3 fish farm, located at Port Na Mine at the eastern end of Loch Etive, 100m into deeper water, and increase the size of its mooring grid and 10 pens from 60m (granted permission in 2007) to 80m in circumference. An earlier application was withdrawn this year ‘due to mis-description’, because ‘unauthorised’ 70m cages had been installed since 2013.
The latest application received 97 expressions of support and 307 objections. Supporters pointed to Scotland’s growing fish farming industry contributing £1.86 billion annually, increasing by £110 million per year, and employing 2,257 people – 2,131 in the Highlands and Islands alone. Trout production on Loch Etive, one argued, ‘helped sustain young families, local communities, services and schools, in an area where there are limited opportunities.’