On the tiny Hebridean island of Gigha, a 20-minute ferry hop from Tayinloan village on the Scottish mainland, Marion Stevenson drives along the only main road, pointing out white beaches and new “wilderness paths”. The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust recently built 14 miles of the paths to encourage eco-tourism. A site in the north of the seven mile-long island has been awarded “dark skies” status – on a clear night you can see the Milky Way.
On the west coast, there are just a handful of houses, cliffs and stunning views across the sea to Jura and Islay. But it is here that Bakkafrost, a Faroese salmon company, proposes siting eight 160-metre-wide cages and a feed barge.
“It will be about 100 metres out to sea,” says Stevenson, who is the treasurer of Gigha community council but stresses that she does not speak for them, as she points past the cliffs below. “There is nothing man-made. The Vikings on Gigha looked at the same view – can’t they just leave it this way?”
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
On the tiny Hebridean island of Gigha, a 20-minute ferry hop from Tayinloan village on the Scottish mainland, Marion Stevenson drives along the only main road, pointing out white beaches and new “wilderness paths”.
John Aitchison, the chair of Friends of the Sound of Jura, a conservation charity based in Argyll, believes warming seas could be posing a bigger threat to salmon welfare in farms in southern and western Scotland than is being acknowledged.
The circles of open-pen salmon farms dotting the sea lochs and jagged shorelines of Scotland’s west coast and islands mark a success story for the aquaculture industry, the fastest-growing food production sector in the world.
Gigha Halibut, an award-winning land-based farm, was forced to close last year citing rising costs of energy production and “biological challenges arising from climate change”.
Other objectors to the proposal, which is awaiting a decision by Argyll and Bute council, include Ariane Burgess, Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands, citing the company’s recent “appalling” mortality rate, and the Clyde Fishermen’s Association, which says the site will impact local fishers, cause pollution and increase sea lice parasites.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We expect anyone wishing to develop any fish or shellfish farm to engage appropriately and fully with the local community to hear them and take their concerns and queries on board.
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