Marine Harvest Ireland (MHI) has addressed allegations that its salmon endure a long road journey before being slaughtered, confirming that a service boat harvests, slaughters and chills the fish raised at its farm in the Castletownbere area before transferring them to tanker lorries.
In a statement, Marine Harvest said that a press release issued by Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), alleging that the salmon were enduring a “journey from hell” by being transported a distance in excess of 600 km before being slaughtered was “inaccurate and a misrepresentation of the facts.”
“Marine Harvest would like to clarify that it is unloading harvested and chilled (not live) salmon from its service boat into tanker lorries at its property situated at the pier in Ballycrovane Harbour. MHI use the services of a local service boat to harvest, slaughter and chill the salmon before transferring them to the taker lorry at the pier. To suggest that the salmon are alive is ridiculous and infers either a total ignorance or malice on behalf of Mr. Lowes,” said MHI’s statement.
According to FIE, the operations have also been the subject of “almost daily” complaints to its offices over noise, danger to traffic and disruption, with callers citing disturbances to the local seal and otter populations.
In response, MHI’s statement said, “MHI have been using this pier since operations began in 2008. This is a very simple arrangement and there are no permanent structures in place (or ever erected) to facilitate the operation. The company is using mobile equipment all of which is stored behind locked gates on Marine Harvest property. There is no loss of access to the foreshore. When the operation is concluded the local service boat used by Marine Harvest returns to its usual mooring point along with all the other boats in the bay.
“Harvesting at salmon sites occurs typically for a few months every two years, it is seasonal and takes place once the stock reaches a market size. This activity does result in some additional traffic, but since MHI has operated at this location (2008), articulated lorries have always been used for various purposes at this location.”
According to Marine Harvest’s latest quarterly trading statement, MHI harvested 3,634 metric tons (MT) of gutted weight salmon in the second-quarter of this year, which was more than double its harvest in the corresponding period of last year (1,452 MT) and up considerably on its Q1 2017 harvest of 633 MT. The rate of harvesting was slowed in the first-quarter in order to increase harvest weights and volumes in later quarters.
