BY CRONAN SCANLON

THE highest recorded levels of sealice on farmed fish in Ireland werefound on two Donegal fish farms in re-cent months, it has emerged.

According to industry-circulatedMarine Institute reports leaked to theDonegal News, the worst affected fishfarms were those in Lough Swilly andMulroy Bay.

The reports were passed to us byan international anti-fish farming ac-tivist, Mr Don Staniford, who visitedDonegal this week.

Mr Staniford said the figuresproved the sites in Mulroy Bay andLough Swilly recorded the highest sealice levels during the months of Au-gust, September and October.

Sea lice from fish farms, he said,were destroying local, long-estab-lished wild Atlantic Salmon stocks.

Marine Harvest has said that it op-erates controls laid down by the Ma-rine Institute which are of the highestinternational standard.

Mr Staniford said: “Marine Harvest(stock) is disease-ridden with morethan 70 lice recorded on some fish attheir site in Lough Swilly in

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

BY CATHERINE COOK

DONEGAL County Council is runningout of time to upgrade a number of

water treatment plants or else faceprosecution from the Environmental

Protection Authority (EPA).According to the EPA’s report on

the Provision and Quality of DrinkingWater in Ireland 2011, Donegal has anoverall high level of compliance with

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

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Seaside brewerygets go-ahead– Page 29

Work on the new 'Cup & Saucer Community Park' has been drawing admiring glances from motorists on their way into Ramelton from Letterkenny. The work, under-taken by the Ramelton Tidy Towns Committee, includes stone walls built by local stone masons and four recently planted oak trees, as well as the depiction of threedifferent scenes, bridge, waterfall and quay, hand-painted on the giant sized cup by John Joe Harkin. Examining the work were Danny Cullen, Brendan Curran, stonemason, and Tony Boyce. Photo by Declan Doherty.

DONEGAL COULD FACEMAJOR WATER OFFENCES

EPA says enforcement proceedings started

Sea licehittingDonegalfarmshardestProblems in LoughSwilly and Mulroy Bay

Friday, November 30, 2012 NEWS DONEGAL NEWS 9

DONEGAL Volunteer Centre has of-fered to include its core group of 1,500registered volunteers by invitingthem to take the opportunity to par-ticipate in local events for the DonegalGathering 2013.

John Curran, Manager of the centresaid, “We are delighted to be able toassist and lend our support to TheDonegal Gathering. Our unique serv-ice provides volunteers qualified toassist in every aspect of work TheGathering 2013 may require.”

Caroline Jahn, Placement Officerfor the Donegal Volunteer Centreadded, “This is an exciting opportuni-ty for Donegal and a fantastic initia-tive. The Donegal Volunteer Centre isfocused on supporting volunteers andlocal groups by connecting people toopportunities to help support a vastarray of community initiatives, andthe mission of The Donegal Gatheringis exactly the same.”

LETTERKENNY Institute of Technology isworth €100 million per year to the Donegaleconomy according to economists at anAmerican University.

The information was provided to Let-terkenny Area Councillor Mick Quinn whoasked a recent meeting of the local authorityto outline, in their opinion, how important LY-IT is to the economy of Letterkenny and theCounty as a whole.

The Council’s Director of Community Cul-ture and Enterprise, Mr Michael Heaney saidthe Council is a key partner in the context ofthe Donegal County Development Board.

He said that based on independent analysisby economists at Louisiana State University,LYIT is worth approximately €100 million perannum to the Donegal Economy.

Currently, the Institute employs 320 staffwith 3350 undergraduates, and approximate-ly 100 postgrads studying on almost 90 pro-grammes across the two campuses in Let-terkenny and Killybegs.

The progression rate of students from with-in Donegal attending LYIT is 83 per cent.

The statistics provided by Mr Heaney showthat within the student profile, 70 per centcome from the North West and 30 per centfrom other counties in Ireland and NorthernIreland.

While students from some 14 countries in-ternationally are studying at LYIT.

He also noted that over the past 15 years

there has been an €80 million campus invest-ment, including the recently purchased 10acre site on the Port Road and a 66 acre site atCarnamuggagh.

Additional to the education programmes atLYIT, Mr Heaney also noted the college is anactive participant in support of the CountyDevelopment Board and Regional EconomicDevelopment.

The CoLab incubation centre there cur-rently hosts 25 high potential start-ups, post

graduates and research centres. They are al-so actively working to support Micro SME andFDI industries in Donegal and the North Westvia research, innovation and enterprise ini-tiatives.

They have also been proactive in enabling500 unemployed people to be retrained viaspringboard programmes.

He concluded that the North West Region-al Science Park Project will be a significantextension to CoLab.

FROM PAGE ONESeptember and as many as 58 per

fish in Mulroy Bay during the samemonth. These figures come from offi-cial Marine Institute reports whichhave been leaked to me,” Mr Stanifordsaid.

“Sea lice is a result of the intensifi-cation of fish farming and lethalchemicals are being used to kill them.

“This is having a devastating effecton wild Atlantic salmon, the environ-ment and traditional fishermen,” headded.

The figures quoted by Mr Stanifordwere confirmed by copies of the samereports which were released to us bythe Marine Institute.

A spokesperson for the institutesaid these reports are circulated tostakeholders, including Inland Fish-eries Ireland and Salmon Watch Ire-land, on a monthly basis.

“You will note that each report con-

tains a statement that they should notbe cited or passed on without priorpermission of the Marine institute.They are intended for information on-ly. The full set of inspection results to-gether with a detailed commentary ispublished annually and posted on theMarine Institute website,” thespokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Marine Harvestsaid it is untrue to say that they haveexceeded sea lice limits every monthof this year to date.

“Marine Harvest Ireland would al-so like to point out the control proto-cols in respect of sea lice are operatedby the Marine Institute on behalf ofthe State and are more advanced thanthose operated in other jurisdictions,”the spokesperson said.

“This is because the regime is to-tally independent of the industry, da-ta obtained as a result of their inspec-tions are published and treatment

trigger levels are set at a low level.“These controls are widely accept-

ed as representing best practice in-ternationally.”

Mr Staniford also claimed that Ma-rine Harvest will be forced to closesites in Mulroy Bay as a result of anoutbreak of the deadly Amoebic GillDisease (AGD).

The naturally occurring disease af-fects farmed salmon and is attributedto an increase in water temperatures.

The spokesperson for the companysaid it been impacted by AGD thisyear but denied this will lead to theclosure of any of their sites.

“Mulroy Bay will be fallowed fol-lowing Christmas 2013 and will be op-erational again in the future. This is inaccordance with good farming prac-tices. Similarly, Lough Swilly will befallowed early next year,” thespokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Mr Staniford heavily

criticised government plans to devel-op a “super size” fish farm off thecoast of Donegal near Gola Island.

Mr Staniford was in Donegal aspart of a tour of the west coast of Ire-land where he outlined the damagingeffects that common fish-farmingpractices which he described as “fun-damentally flawed”.

“It has become clear that factoryfarming in Ireland causes mass dis-eases and the public has a right toknow what diseases and treatmentsaffect farm salmon,” he said.

Mr Staniford referred to the firststudy on salmon farming in Ireland in1989 which said the use of hydrogenperoxide to combat sea lice heightensdangers for wild stocks.

He also quoted a recent report byIreland’s Inland Fisheries that showed39 per cent of the wild salmon thatwould normally return to their riversare being killed by sea lice.

CHRISTMAS HOURS & DEADLINESThe Donegal News will be published on Friday 28th

December 2012 and Friday 4th January 2013

OPENING HOURSMonday 24th December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9am-12noonTuesday 25th December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CLOSEDWednesday 26th December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CLOSEDThursday 27th December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9am-5.30pmFriday 28th December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9am-5pmMonday 31st January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9am-5.30pmTuesday 1st January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CLOSEDWednesday 2nd January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9am-5.30pm

DEADLINES FOR DONEGAL NEWSEDITION 28th DECEMBER 2012

FAMILY NOTICES . . . . . . . . . . . Tuesday 18th December – 4pmENTERTAINMENT . . . . . . . . . Wednesday 19th December – 4pmRUN OF PAPER ADVERTS . . . Wednesday 19th December – 4pm

DEADLINES FOR DONEGAL NEWSEDITION 4th JANUARY 2013

FAMILY NOTICES . . . . . . . . . . . Tuesday 18th December – 4pmENTERTAINMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . Friday 28th December – 4pmRUN OF PAPER ADVERTS . . . . . . . Friday 28th December – 4pm

To reserve your advertising space or for any further information

please call the office on (074) 9121014or email: advertising@donegalnews.com

LYIT worth €100 million annuallyto local economy - economist

Sea lice problems at fish farmsEdmund and Anna Meehan from Raphoe who celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in St Eunan’s Church, Raphoe with their family and friends after the anniversary mass. Photo: Clive Wasson

Volunteers forThe Gathering

Letterkenny Institute of Technology.