Report critical of salmon farm EIS

THE applicants for the proposed Galway Bay salmon farm, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), have been accused of failing to post to their website a damning report on the possible environmental impact of the project, which has the potential to create up to 500 jobs.

 

Environmental lobby group, Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), claim the report, compiled by the semi-state agency, Inland Fisheries Ireland, has been suppressed despite a BIM’s statement on its website that it is “making all documentation available”.

FIE see the publication of the submission by Inland Fisheries Ireland on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a deep-sea fish farm development in Galway as crucial. “This report is highly critical of the Environmental Impact Statement,” a spokesperson maintained.

BIM has suggested that the deep-sea fish farm could create up to 500 jobs and 15,000 tonnes of organic salmon every year. Currently, BIM is in the process of public consultation as part of its application for a licence for the fish farm.

FIE points out that the IFI Report was one of those submitted by State bodies (statutory consultees) during the now-closed statutory consultation process, which preceded the current public consultation period.

In spite of BIM’s statement on its website that it is “making all documentation available” the Inland Fisheries Submission is not included among those from the EPA, the Galway Harbor Company, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and An Taisce.

The submission alleges that the EIS contains many statements “not supported” by research and that some relevant research is noticeably absent, such as data gathered on wild salmon at the proposed site by the Celtic Voyager.

IFI points out, for example, that “no data is provided on the known migration routes of salmonids” to support BIM’s claim that there is a “very low to zero risk of farmed salmon sea lice infecting wild salmon”, that “the extensive literature published on interactions of sea trout and salmon lice in Ireland are not referred to or discussed” and that the sea lice issue is “a legitimate concern in this proposal”.

The submission states that in the EIS ‘”presumptions are made and conclusions drawn regarding the potential impact of sea lice from the proposed locations on wild smolts, which are not supported by any scientific investigation”.

It criticises the “tenuous mechanism to assist in invasive species control”, which may arise form the importation of smolts on this scale.

It points out that the overwhelming research showing genetic modification of wild salmon are absent, with the two papers referred to actually coming to the “opposite conclusion” of that reported in the EIS.
“With 2.5 million mature salmon present on site annually in autumn, an escape would pose a significant threat for interbreeding with the wild salmon stock,” the report points out.

The submission concludes that “a full monitoring system should be put in place and a baseline study undertaken in advance of any farm being established”.

FIE have written to Minister Simon Coveney, asking him to instruct BIM to make the submission available on their website.