Farmed salmon enter largest wild fishery in west of Ireland after Killary Harbour escape

Farmed salmon believed to have escaped from Killary Harbour in Connemara last month have entered Lough Corrib, an important special area of conservation (Sac) and the west of Ireland’s largest wild fishery. Following the escape of thousands of farmed salmon from a damaged cage on August 11th, some have since been discovered in nearby lakes and prime angling rivers for wild Atlantic salmon. A salmon of farmed origin, similar to those that escaped Killary Harbour, was caught on Monday by an angler at the Galway Salmon Weir in Galway city on the Corrib river. It was forwarded to Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) for analysis. This escapee was very thin and had lesions on its body, according to Billy Smyth, chairman of Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages (GBASC). In the days following the initial escape, IFI said it believed the escaped farmed salmon “pose a significant risk to wild Atlantic salmon populations” as wild salmon in the nearby rivers were returning to their rivers of origin to ...