Galway fish farm no longer allowed to bathe diseased salmon in lake water

Galway fish farm no longer allowed to bathe diseased salmon in lake water

Source: irishtimes

1/18/2021

The High Court has overturned a permission granted to a fish farm operator to pump freshwater from an island lake for use in bathing salmon in fish farms off the Co Galway coast to rid them of disease.

Environmental activist Peter Sweetman took the challenge over An Bord Pleanála’s permission for taking freshwater from Loch an Mhuilinn, Gorumna Island, Co Galway, and associated works, including a temporary pipe link to the lake.

Bradán Beo Teoranta, a licensed fish farm operator, got permission to take a maximum of 4,680 cubic metres of freshwater weekly from the privately owned non-tidal inland lake for up to 22 weeks annually from mid-May to September, to be pumped over four hours daily for a maximum of four days per week.

The freshwater was intended to bathe diseased salmon in four licensed sites operated by the company in Kilkieran Bay to rid them of sea lice and amoebic gill disease.