Files reveal Kerry fish farm continued to operate while licence was suspended

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has called out the ‘crazy’ fish farm licensing system which allows companies to operate without a licence.

Files show Kerry’s only fish farm, near Waterville, restocked 800 tonnes of salmon last year, despite its licence having been suspended at that time.

The farm, run by Mowi Ireland, had its licence revoked in 2019 after it emerged that it had harvested over double its fish quota, though a later enquiry revealed it was in fact around four times its quota.

While this decision was overturned at the end of last year by the Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board, whether or not the farm had a licence seems not to matter.

Mowi were still able to restock in the interim due to the controversial Clause 19A(4) in Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997, which entitles farms to continue to operate while they have an application in for renewal.

The new licence application for Deenish Island has been lodged with the Department of Agriculture since 2023.

Local councillor Norma Moriarty believes the licensing system needs to be overhauled given the potential damaging effects of fish farms on wild sea life.

“It’s crazy. I don’t know of any other situation where that’s allowable,” she said.

“If your licence is endorsed and you’re put off the road, you can appeal it. I don’t believe you’re allowed to drive in the interim.

“If you’re any other entity, for example, in the agricultural sector…if there are breaches or the licence has been revoked, you can’t operate while you’re under appeal…it does look very much like kicking it into touch and just it doesn’t serve anybody well in my view.”

A landmark study published by Dr Paddy Gargan last year suggested that fish farms can have significant effects on wild salmon stocks, over-turning previous research indicating little to no impact.

His paper showed that the increased sea lice populations generated by farms can have significant effects on young wild salmon.

“We continue to be extremely concerned with this because obviously look at the impact on salmon, but from specifically a local water point of view, there’s a significantly negative impact on trout as well,” said Cllr Moriarty.

“Trout is not a protected species in the way that salmon is, and we would have previously argued the salmon for that reason…but even that doesn’t seem to be giving the protection it should.”

Figures from a fish counter on a water course in Waterville leading to Lough Currane, shows wild salmon stocks have decreased 85pc between 2002 and 2022, with sea trout, the crowning jewel of Waterville’s angling, down 95.6pc in the same period.

Cllr Moriarty remembers when the angling business was booming in Waterville and the vast benefits it would bring the local economy.

With the opening of the salmon fishing season in January, the area was suddenly overtaken by an influx of anglers from all over Europe.

Local businesses reaped the benefits of the out-of-season traffic, with anglers enjoying themselves and spending generously.

“Their benefit to the local economy is incredible, but you would have consistently repeat visitors because it’s their patch, they get to know it, they get to know their gillies, where they stay, their lodgings,” said Cllr Moriarty.

“They’re very good at enjoying themselves, they know how to have a good meal, you know, a few drinks and they pay their gillies and so on…the benefit to the local economy is far in excess of what the fish farm or any fish farm has been able to give to the local economies in which they’ve been based.

“There is empirical evidence to prove that. In fact, angling tourism is one of the most beneficial types of sustainable tourism you can have in an area.”

Waterville’s statue of Charlie Chaplin, who frequented angling on Lough Currane

Friends of Irish Environment (FIE) brought High Court judicial review proceedings supporting the Agriculture Minister’s 2019 decision to the licence at Deenish Island at the end of last year.

FIE argues that since Mowi had ‘knowingly’ harvested well over double the permitted tonnage and exceeded stocking limits set in the 1995 licence, any statutory right to continue operating under the legislation fell away.

A review carried out of aquaculture licences in 2017 found that over a third of active farms had expired licences, but were allowed to continue operation due their lodging of renewal application with the agriculture department.

“Our case is about more than one salmon farm in Kerry,” said the FIE, “it is about a broken licensing system that lets intensive farms run on a ‘temporary basis after their licences expire regardless of continued breaches of licence conditions, while sea trout and wild salmon vanish and the legally required environmental assessments never happen”.