Dear All
You are invited to attend the Save Bantry Bay meeting, at 8.15pm this Saturday, the Eccles Hotel.
After a recent public meeting in Adrigole a group was formed to oppose the proposed salmon farm by Marine Harvest at Shot Head, Adrigole. The group ‘Save Bantry Bay’ is holding a meeting on Saturday, 24 March, at the Eccles Hotel at 8.15 PM to update everyone on the situation.
Chairman Kieran O’Shea, a third generation fisherman from Adrigole, and local Angling Association Secretary Alex O’Donovan, will give a presentation outlining wide ranging objections. This will highlight the fierce opposition to the farm, and how it has brought together diverse interests from across the peninsula.
Fishermen claim that the site of more than 100 acres will limit their ability to make a living, closing off part of an important ground for shrimp and prawn. Tourist interests have quoted studies in Scotland that show that certain tourists do not return to an area with fish farms as they spoil the natural beauty.
Save Bantry Bay is also particularly concerned with the impact of sea lice on the wild salmon as there are 5 salmon rivers entering the bay, all of which will be put at risk. The latest research shows that almost half of the wild salmon populations were lost in bays with salmon farms.
A further problem is the waste produced by salmon farms. It is estimated that in the year 2000, 350 Scottish salmon farms produced a level of waste that had an ecological result which was effectively greater than the sewage produced by Scotland’s 5.1 million humans. Using calculation methods outlined in this study it can be estimated that the Shot Head salmon production of 2,700 tons of fish a year would equate to sewage from a city of 47,000 people – twice the population of Tralee or Kilkenny.
If you are concerned about any of the above, or would like to learn more about the proposed salmon farm in Bantry Bay, please do attend out meeting.
There will also be a showing of the film Salmonopoly, a documentary about the environmental destruction caused by Marine Harvest’s operation in Chile.
Protect Bantry Bay, Ireland 
Thanks for organizing this!
Just wondering:
Instead of sending a dozen able-bodied men out to hunt and bring down a single wild deer or mammoth to feed the tribe, a single farmer can now raise a dozen cattle. Aquaculture is supposed to do the same as agriculture did: so instead of sending out boatfuls of fishermen to risk their lives, we corral the fish and farm them – therefore, this would similarly, and logically, require fewer people for a larger number of fish. Makes sense.
In fact, statistics from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries In Norway for 2003 show that salmon and trout production had doubled since 1995 while both the number of fishermen and employees employed in primary production as well as of fishing vessels had fallen in the same period by more than a third (http://www.ssb.no/fiskeri_havbruk_en/). The figures show how fish farming, instead of creating new jobs, in fact reduced the overall number of people employed in fishing in Norway.
So won’t the newly created jobs promised by Marine Harvest necessarily come at the expense of many other jobs, e.g. the jobs of local fishermen as indicated by Kieran O Shea? Not to mention jobs in other industries, like the tourist industry, which could also be compromised? What about the jobs lost when visitors no longer come to stay in local B&Bs to line fish, the jobs lost in tourism when the environment is destroyed – as shown by the Scottish study according to which many people would not return to a place where fish farms spoil the wilderness?
How does this work? Or is there something I am not getting??
Marine harvest as you are aware already attempted to move into the Dooneen area of Dunmanusbay,it was the support of the whole community and finally the blue flag status and the strength of The Sheeps Head way organisation which prevented it from happening.Our local Td’s and Cc’s you can bet are for it and i know that Brian Crowley the local MEP was very behind Mr Power from silver king fisheries(Castletown),I lobbied Brian an old friend and thought he might not play the old FF game ..I was wrong..
So let´s hope the Beara Way people will show the same strength as the Sheep´s Head lads.