Loch Long Salmon Farm back on the table

In October 2022 we informed you about the proposed salmon farm development at Beinn Reithe, Loch Long, and the much applauded decision made by the Trossachs Planning Board to refuse the application.

Loch Long Salmon appealed the decision, and following that, a disturbing intervention from Minister Joe Fitzpatrick, Local Government Empowerment and Planning Minister, showed us that the battle to see an end to it is not yet over. We wrote to Mr Fitzpatrick to express our concern at this unusual and alarming move.

In September 2023 we wrote about joining forces with other charities to campaign against salmon farming across Scotland. As a Countryfile episode aired on the 10th September exposing the shocking conditions in salmon farms through footage acquired by Animal Equality, we all took to social media to counter the false claims of Loch Long Salmon Company's Managing Director (MD) that their proposed technology would cut mortality and solve the existing problems in salmon farming. 

What MD Stewart Hawthorn didn’t mention was that trials in Canada were cut short exactly because of high salmon mortality rates. So bad were they, that the trials were abandoned without conclusion.

It is impossible to remedy the tonnage of salmon faeces that comes with salmon farming, the damage done to the seafloor, and diseases and sea lice which cannot be contained so long as this industry continues to use the marine environment as its personal sewer.

Now, as the  Loch Long application is under appeal, it is urgent that we let Cabinet Secretary Shona Robison and the Government know that the development of this salmon farm would be disastrous.

Please write to Cabinet Secretary Shona Robison to encourage her to do the right thing and refuse the application for the development of salmon farms on Loch Long. 

Email her at; CabSecFLG@gov.scot

You can use points from the letter we have written, but always good to use your own words.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing, and industrial farming of a migratory, carnivorous species is just plain wrong.