Press Releases

Archived Press Releases:

 May 12 ,2007
ELECTION 2007: How clean is Donegal’s water, and other pertinent political questions…?

 September 25 ,2006
OYSTER CRISIS EXPOSES "SHAMBLES" IN MANAGEMENT OF SWILLY

 July 11 ,2005
ATTEMPT TO DOUBLE SALMON-FARMING OUTPUT IN LOUGH SWILLY

 August 23 ,2004
WHICH PART OF "NO" DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND?

 June 02 ,2004
COULTER CALLS FOR POLITICAL CHANGE IN DONEGAL

 December 15 ,2003
PORTSALON SALMON-FARMING LICENCE REFUSED BY ALAB

 November 05 ,2003
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY FEDERATION OF IRISH SALMON AND SEA TROUT ANGLERS, FRIENDS OF CLEW BAY AND SAVE THE SWILLY

 September 24 ,2003
PRIME TIME EXPOSES AQUACULTURE'S SHORTCOMINGS

 July 24 ,2003
SAVE THE SWILLY CALLS FOR FARMED SALMON MORTALITY MONITOR

 July 21 ,2003
ANOTHER DISASTER IN INVER BAY - INQUIRY ESSENTIAL

 July 17 ,2003
"RURAL DEVELOPMENT TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY"

 June 21 ,2003
ANOTHER DISASTER IN INVER BAY - INQUIRY ESSENTIAL

 February 08 ,2003
SAVE THE SWILLY MEETS INISHOWEN POLITICIANS

 February 03 ,2003
BLUE FLAG BEACH THREATENED BY 80-ACRE FISH FARM

 January 29 ,2003
SAVE THE SWILLY 10,000-SIGNATURE PETITION ACCEPTED BY EUROPE

 January 28 ,2003
NEW ALLIANCE FORMED IN SWILLY

 December 16 ,2002
"STOP RIPPING UP THE SWILLY" INDIGENOUS PEOPLE DEMAND

 December 13 ,2002
LOUGH SWILLY'S INDIGENOUS FISHERMEN SPEAK OUT

 October 01 ,2002
Press Releases Save The Swilly 1 October 2002 PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS INTEGRATED COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT

 September 25 ,2002
SAVE THE SWILLY WELCOMES EU STRATEGY ON COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT

 August 12 ,2002
'Lough Swilly ICZM Report'

 August 02 ,2002
QUESTIONS OVER DECOMPOSING SALMON IN INVER BAY

 June 03 ,2002
NO ROOM FOR TRADITION IN LOUGH SWILLY

 May 03 ,2002
Save The Swilly opts for "Swilly First"

 May 03 ,2002
Save The Swilly/Green Party candidate withdraws

 May 01 ,2002
Save The Swilly/Green Party candidate to contest Donegal North-East

 April 18 ,2002
COULTER TO BE "AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE" FOR SAVE THE SWILLY

 March 25 ,2002
Save The Swilly presents 10,000-signature petition to EU

 March 12 ,2002
Study of Lough Swilly launched

 November 30 ,2001
STS letter to Hugh Byrne, Minister for State for the Department of the Marine

 November 27 ,2001
ICZM AND OSPAR - NOT CLAMS - FOR SWILLY

 October 17 ,2001
SALMON FARM WANTS STILL MORE LICENCES INSHORE

 September 17 ,2001
SAVE THE SWILLY MEETS LABOUR PARTY

 September 13 ,2001
SAVE THE SWILLY MEETS MINISTER OF STATE BYRNE

 September 01 ,2001
SAVE THE SWILLY BEGINS FUNDRAISING DRIVE

 August 28 ,2001
SAVE THE SWILLY WELCOMES I.F.A. INITIATIVE

 May 15 ,2001
EXPANSION OF SALMON FARMING TRAGIC FOR SWILLY

 April 09 ,2001
MUSSEL BARRELS ADRIFT IN LOUGH SWILLY

 March 22 ,2001
SAVE THE SWILLY PRESENTS PETITION

 March 13 ,2001
SAVE THE SWILLY QUESTIONS MINISTER BYRNE

 March 11 ,2001
SAVE THE SWILLY REAFFIRMS CALL FOR MORATORIUM

 February 20 ,2001
LAUNCH OF SAVE THE SWILLY WEBSITE

 January 24 ,2001
An open letter to the people on the shores of Lough Swilly:

 January 16 ,2001
Delegation meets Minister Hugh Byrne

 January 09 ,2001
Save The Swilly (from looking like Mulroy Bay)

SAVE THE SWILLY - August 23 ,2004

WHICH PART OF "NO" DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND?

Dear STS Members and Supporters,

For those who are not aware of the most recent developments in Lough Swilly, the company that had been refused a salmon-farming licence for a 90-acre site next to Portsalon's Blue Flag beach by the Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board (ALAB) in December 2003 has decided that this answer was not the correct one, and they are planning a re-match.

According to a circular letter sent to 112 individuals and groups, the applicant, Marine Harvest Ireland, "still urgently requires a licence for a second operable site for its Lough Swilly operation. Having carried out lengthy investigations in the lough over many years, we have now concluded that the only suitable locations remain in the general vicinity of Dooanmore."

Anyone who feels they should be consulted on this further attempt to establish a massive salmon farm in the Portsalon area should contact Mr Joseph Gibbons, Marine Sites Manager, Marine Harvest Ireland, Kindrum, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland, Tel. (074) 91 59071, Fax (074) 91 59077, and ask to be sent a "scoping letter". This is a letter setting out the company's intentions, and inviting comments. The company has set an arbitrary deadline of Friday, 24th September 2004 for comments, so the request to be included in the process should be made immediately.

For those unfamiliar with the area, Dooanmore is also known as Greenfort Island, which is the area sought by Marine Harvest in its last bid - for a 90-acre salmon farm - which was duly overturned by ALAB in December 2003. Dooanmore is adjacent to the Blue Flag beach at Ballymastocker Bay, Portsalon.

Marine Harvest rejects ALAB's reasons for its decision, which were:

• "It is considered that the deterioration in water quality arising from the proposed activity would have a negative impact on the recreational use of the adjacent Portsalon Blue Flag Beach.
• "It is considered that the proposed activity constitutes an unacceptable risk to navigation.
• "It is considered that the location of the proposed activity would give rise to injury to visual amenity in an area visible from a designated scenic and tourist route and within the views and prospects of special amenity as designated in the Donegal County Development Plan 2000."

It is not surprising that Marine Harvest disagrees with ALAB, given the fact that they did not get what they were seeking, but the company evidently did not feel strongly enough about the validity of the ALAB decision to seek a Judicial Review, an option available to them at the time. The fact that a Judicial Review was not sought indicates that Marine Harvest did not believe it could succeed in overturning the ALAB decision in the High Court.

Instead, it is re-launching the application for a site in the same location, probably with the view that the composition of ALAB has changed radically since the December decision, and their position may be more sympathetically heard.

Save The Swilly has been told repeatedly by officials from the Department of the Marine, and indeed by Ministers in that Department, that we should rely on the appeals process, which is part of the statutory mechanism by which the aquaculture licensing process is handled. While we have generally felt that the Department of the Marine is not sympathetic to anyone opposed to aquaculture development in unsuitable areas, we have accepted that an appeals mechanism exists, and participated in the process in good faith. It is now apparent that ALAB's decisions are good only if they suit the aquaculture industry, and this raises serious questions about the industry's own commitment to the process.

It will be a travesty of the democratic process if this new application is even allowed to move to the next stage, and we strongly recommend that anyone who believes the ALAB decision last December was fair and reasonable, and that it should be allowed to stand, should make their voices heard.

The message from the industry and from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources may be that they alone will decide on the use of public resources, but all citizens have a right to express their opinion, and it should be clear to anyone familiar with Portsalon that this is not an appropriate location for salmon farming. The argument that the site will occupy a small fraction of Lough Swilly is irrelevant. The fact is that these intensive farming operations have a huge footprint, many times larger than the physical location of the cages; they do create navigational obstacles; and they are proposing to locate the operation within fishing ground that is important to our inshore fishermen. Unlike all other marine activities, they are not occupied and then vacated; fish-farms stay in place for decades, carving out large areas of the lough as no-go areas, even to other legitimate stake-holders.

We can make a difference, but action is needed now! Lough Swilly needs YOU!

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