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SAVE BANTRY BAY COMMITTEE WANTS ANSWERS FROM MINISTER

THE Save Bantry Bay Committee are pressing Minister Simon Coveney to answer questions on damage, escapes and mortalities that occurred due to the recent local storms. Chair of Save Bantry Bay and local fisherman, Kieran O'Shea added: "I am regularly out fishing in Bantry Bay. Anyone can see the pens are destroyed. "Inspection vessels, including well-boats that allow fish to be gathered and counted, visited over two weeks ago. "I do not understand how they can have failed to quantify the number alive, dead or missing."

Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment noted: "To suggest escaped farmed salmon have little consequence for local wild salmon populations is a mistake. "Recent research in Norway has shown farmed salmon can compose up to 47 per cent of a river's salmon population. They interbreed, weakening wild salmon genetically, while also competing for their habitat and breeding grounds."