It would make sense - if it were true and this is why I broke my self made rule not to discuss fish farming with rod fishermen.
This thread started on what criteria the SG used to classify the salmon rivers of our fair country and it was highlighted, by many, they appeared to be ignorant of what was believed to be true by the river users. Fair argument and I have no problem with that, indeed I find it interesting as one who has negotiated with SG on fishing matters. Although mainly shellfish orientated I was on the committee which pushed through legislation to allow shooting of predator seals in river mouths and often tussled with Prof. Ian Boyd about actual seal numbers compared to reported seal numbers. Therein lies a probable more productive discussion on what happens to all the salmon - do you know how much fish a seal eats and do you know how many more seals surround the SCOTTISH coast since they have been protected?
The starting wage for an entrant into any of the large salmon producing companies is £19k at aged 18 or over, rising to £23k within 3 years. There is a new onshore £90 million installation being built on Skye and recruiting is now starting to fill the 55 initial positions. Gael Force Marine, Kishorn Fairwinds Engineering and many other companies who supply the fishing industry would not survive without the money invested by whoever involved in fish farming. It is not all good - as the rod fishing fraternity when seen from outside by other land and water users. Salmon farming has many faults but without it the west coast of the Highlands would be a much poorer place. Believe me - I really DO know - I have spent over 30 years working with tourism, fishing, community project financing, fish farming, and scallop diving.
I can already hear Mr Roxburgh howling in the background and probably calls for me to be struck off the forum but what REALLY annoys me is when people who know a lot about their own interests is them waving their arms about to grab hold of the biggest easiest target when things get rough - no matter the cost!
I will stop as really, I know I'm wasting time, people's minds are already made up regardless of actual fact.
Now Peter , here's me wondering who this Mr Roxburgh is, then I thought he may be referring to me, I might think about getting you off for bad spelling , you must remember I worked in fish farming and gillying , and 15 years inshore fishing , I was a founder member of the association that you eventually worked for, I gave up howling a long time ago, just remember that you aren't the only one with experience of the fields you mention, Oh, I also worked in tourism working for SNH in the information centre, after 48 years living and working here , I probably have as much right as you , to have an opinion,
salmon farming was, at the beginning a saviour to a lot of local communities , but, as I can add up, there wasn't the number of people working in fish farming as was bandied about, even with 20 people per site through out Scotland it doesn't come to the numbers given by some, remember I visited most of these sites delivering smolts up to Shetland and the outer isles and down to Loch Fyne , now a lot of these sites have cut back on personnel by as much as 60%, so only valuable to the People who actually work there,
as for Gillying, I know it was seasonal , but the anglers that came brought families and they went out into the country side and spent money locally, so the money went round. Now there are few anglers coming to the likes of the Loch Maree Hotel, so these places are struggling, as well as the fish the anglers came for, As I mentioned previously in a post, we had seals, Poachers , etc. but we still had fish to catch, until the advent of upper loch Salmon farming then it went down hill, notice Peter, I am not Howling just stating a few facts as I have seen them ,now my rant is over , just spell my name right the next time you make a criticism, cheers Derek ROXBOROUGH
