A PEACE deal was signed yesterday aimed at ending the long-running conflict between fish farmers and anglers.
It was the latest in a series of area management agreements heralding greater co-operation between the aquaculture industry and wild fish interests and covers the largest geographical area of any agreement so far.
Michael Russell, the environment
minister, welcomed the agreement for the whole of Skye, including 14 salmon rivers, and the smaller islands of Scalpay, Raasay, Rona, Soay, Canna, Rum, Eigg and Muck.
A working group involving farmed and wild fish bodies as well as government agencies, was set up in 1999 against a background of declining stocks of wild salmon and sea trout.
It aimed to protect and develop the wild stocks while also promoting a sustainable salmon farming industry.
There are now 16 such agreements in place throughout the west coast and Western Isles. Mr Russell said the Skye deal was a step towards both sides of the salmon industry co-existing in a sustainable way.
"It aims to ensure healthy stocks of wild fish and farmed fish are maintained, help minimise escapes of farmed salmon and support a vibrant aquaculture industry."
The agreement will increase efforts to minimise escapes from fish farms, while there will be regular monitoring and exchanges of information.
Work will keep lice on farmed salmon to a minimum, particularly during the critical wild smolt migration period between February and June. Farmers have also agreed that fish farms will be stocked and left fallow at the same times and treatment of lice will also be carried out at the same time on every farm.
Brian Floyd, production manager for Pan Fish Scotland, said: "We are deeply conscious of the benefits of co-operation with wild fish interests, since we share the same environment and we all profit from ensuring that we do everything in our power to maintain and improve it.
"The rural communities in which we farm benefit greatly from the income generated by angling tourism, as well as from the income fish-farming brings."
Last month wild fish bodies revealed they are to complain to the European Commission over the escape of more than 100,000 farmed salmon from sites in the Western Isles in the past six months.
It is claimed farmed fish can carry disease and affect the genes of wild species, although there is no definitive scientific proof.
It followed news that the Scottish Salmon Producers' Organisation plans to raise annual production from 137,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes by 2017.
Peter Kinloch, chairman of the Skye District Salmon Fishery Board, said the agreement was a milestone in promoting the health, welfare and good management of both wild and farmed salmon in Skye waters.
But he said it was just the first step: "This is a starting point because in Skye there has traditionally been very little communication between the wild fisheries and the aquaculture sector.
"This agreement not only brings in good measures for managing fish populations but also brings people around the table which is important."
He added: "Fish farmers have, perhaps unfairly, been blamed for all the ills befalling the wild fish populations and one of the things we can do which is positive and practical is talk to them because we all have the same vested interest at heart.
"No-one is 100 per cent sure whether escaped farmed fish actually will breed with wild fish or to what extent the genetic strength and integrity of the wild fish is being damaged.
"What we have now is a growing head of steam where people who have shared interests in getting to the bottom of these issues are meeting, exchanging information in an open and honest way and getting access to scientific support."
PLEA FOR PROTECTED MARINE RESERVES
A SERIES of "marine reserves" where fishing and other damaging human activities are banned must be created around the UK coast, according to a report to be launched today.
The Wildlife Trusts wants a marine bill to make provision for areas which afford the highest level of protection to threatened species and habitats.
The report, called Marine Reserves - TLC for Our Seas and Sea Life, gives 15 examples of areas which could benefit from becoming reserves, including Lamlash Bay and the Solway Firth in Scotland.
