Mowi Scotland has reported the escape of 73,600 salmon with an average weight of 1.9 kilograms following damage to a pen at the company’s Colonsay farm during storm Brendan last week.Recently:
It comes in the wake of two large-scale escapes from Mowi sites at Hellisay, near Barra in the Outer Hebrides, in October and November.
In total, more than 120,000 salmon have escaped from Mowi Scotland fish farms on the west coast of Scotland this winter due to wild weather damaging cages.
All three escapes were from the Norwegian-owned firm’s new generation of high capacity offshore sites.
The Colonsay incident ranks among the 10 biggest known escapes from fish farms in Scotland and is the worst since 2014.
An estimated four million farmed salmon have been freed in more than 200 incidents since 1995, with scientific research showing that a quarter of wild Scottish salmon now carry genes from Norwegian farmed salmon due to hybridisation.
Mowi’s Colonsay net pen farm is one of the most far-flung and exposed in the world. Its construction exceeds both Scottish and Norwegian technical standards for net pens....MORE
"Scottish Fish Farm Rejected after Campaigners Warn Fishermen Could be Lured to their Deaths by Fairies"
