Tag Archives: fish farm

An emergency public meeting will take place in Kinvara this Friday concerning the proposed development of a large, 26 acre fish farm at Aughinish on the border between Clare and Galway. The meeting is being organised by the Aughinish Bay Community Group, who say the local community is shocked and upset by the proposed development. Galway based company, Sliogeisc Siar Teoranta, lodged applications for both a foreshore license and an aquaculture license in 2019. The Department of Agriculture refused the application for the aquaculture license in November 2020, primarily on the grounds of the damage the development would do the delicate ecosystem in Aughinish Bay. This decision was later appealed to the Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board, which overturned the Department of the Environment ruling in January 2023. Sliogeisc Siar Teoranta have now appealed for a foreshore license, which will be needed to develop the fish farm, and the Aughinish Bay Community Group are encouraging local people to oppose this application. …

Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) has withdrawn its plans for a controversial large-scale organic salmon farm North East of Inis Óirr. BIM held a board meeting on Monday after which it announced that it will not proceed with its application for an aquaculture licence for a proposed 15,000 tonne organic salmon farm in Galway Bay. There had been widespread objections to the plans for the Galway Bay Deep Sea Salmon Farm, notably from the Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages movement, set up by freshwater angling clubs, hoteliers, guest house owners, in-shore fishermen and environmentalists. A statement from BIM said it had withdrawn the application in line with the new National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development. The strategy drawn up by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine follows extensive consultation and forms the basis for the drawdown of €30 million in EU funding dedicated to Irish aquaculture development over the next five years from the European Maritime Fisheries Fund …

THE public disagreement between two State bodies regarding the proposed fish farm off the North Clare Coast is “a very poor reflection of the public sector”, the head of one of them has admitted. Inland Fisheries Ireland and Bord Iascaigh Mhara have come out on opposite sides of the plan by BIM for the development of a 456-hectare organic salmon farm between the North Clare coast and Inis Oirr. BIM submitted an application for the farm, which would produce 15,000 tonnes of salmon per year, to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine last January. Speaking to The Clare Champion Bord Iascaigh Mhara CEO Jason Wholly described the disagreement between BIM and IFI as beyond unseemly. “Unseemly is putting it mildly and it shouldn’t be the case and it is a very poor reflection of the public sector in Ireland and, indeed, the Government that this is the case,” he stated. A key area of disagreement between the two sides …