I propose to take Parliamentary Questions Nos. 82 and 83 together.
Aquaculture licences are subject to a variety of conditions designed to ensure best practice and the taking of all necessary precautionary-remedial action. It is a licence condition that all fish escapes must be reported immediately to the Department and to the regional fisheries boards. The cause of the escape must be established by the fish farm and necessary remedial action taken to address this. Stock losses must also be quantified.
No escapement of 125,000 adult farmed salmon has been reported to the Department by any fish farm operator in the Cork-Kerry region. Last week the Department received a report from one fish farm operator advising that on completion of harvesting operations at a site in late November, a shortfall of 20,000 fish was reported from one cage. Prior to this the South-Western Regional Fisheries Board had received reports of farmed salmon being caught in their area. Routine diving checks of nets and the cages at the farm throughout the year and following harvesting operations did not indicate any structural damage to nets or cages. To date internal investigations by the company have not established the reason for the shortfall. The South-Western Regional Fisheries Board and the Department are continuing investigations into the incident. The matter has also been reported to the Garda.
