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4,000 Farmed Trout Escape Into Loch Awe
For the Umteenth Time Rainbow Trout Have Escaped into Loch Awe Threatening the Recovery of Salmon Stocks in the Awe System
Over 4,000 rainbows valued at £15,000 have escaped into Loch Awe from the Scot Trout Farm at Ardchattan on Loch Etive. There can be little doubt that this mass of rainbow trout with their natural migratory habit will spread throughout the Awe system threatening, yet again, the recovery of salmon stocks on the once prolific river Awe. Scot Trout 'deeply regret' this incident and cite mechanical failure during a storm on the 29th of February for the occurrence.
Scot Trout are the major supplier of farmed trout to our best known supermarkets and Tesco have responded to complaints from anglers and angling bodies by threatening sanctions against Scot Trout over this escape.
Escapes of farmed fish into the natural systems of our rivers and lochs are a common occurrence from small fisheries and ponds washed out during floods to large scale events such as happened on Loch Awe as well as the more high profile mass escapes of salmon from sea cages. Shockingly such escapes have been going on for many years on the Awe system. The loch has built quite a reputation for producing very large rainbows all coming from escapee stocks. Some might say that this is a freebie bonus costing nothing to the angling fraternity while providing a big fish bonanza, but think again. The fish that escaped from the Scot Trout farm were valued at £15,000 suggesting strongly that these escapees were not the run of the mill supermarket fish. At just under a £5 per fish they have to be sizeable fish, voracious eaters. The influx of thousands of large hungry fish into the Awe system must mean that competition for available food will rise significantly in an instant and 'food' to escapee rainbows includes young trout and salmon. Native species are at risk not only of starvation but risk being eaten in large numbers. This mass exodus of fish could feasibly wipe out the stocks of parr and smolts built up at great cost and effort by the Argyll District salmon Fishery Board.
Fish farming is a multi million pound industry employing many thousands of people in Scotland, consequently the powers that be have been tardy, to say the least, about dealing with the excesses of the industry which have contributed greatly to the demise of the west coast salmon and sea trout fisheries, the damage to natural stock gene pools from the introduction of farmed salmon interbreeding with wild fish and the competition introduced to finely balance ecosystems by, thankfully, non breeding eater like rainbows.
The Scottish Government has, to it's credit, examined this problem and introduced new legislation to govern fish farming bad practice, they have also commissioned surveys on the economic value of sports fishing to the economy of Scotland. Previous surveys have shown that sports fishing is in fact a major contributor to the economy of the nation providing employment in rural areas for many thousands of people. Properly managed, sports angling could in fact put Scotland squarely back on the world angling map and properly managed means hammering fish farms who put their profit before the interests of the environment, it's aquatic life and the anglers, both resident and visitor, who derive great pleasure and physical and mental health benefits from participating in angling.
The message to fish farms is that their days of riding rough shod over local and national interests is coming to an end. Angling has become, unfortunately but necessarily, politicised and as such is starting to flex it's not inconsiderable muscle and voting power. As to you anglers, get out there and fish hard for these rainbows, every one you catch and kill is one less mouth to fill with our precious wild breeding stock
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