News / Salmon cages disappear again
THE HUGE salmon cages being towed to safety after being washed out to sea by the strong Christmas gales across Shetland have disappeared again.
Almost three weeks after the 12 cages containing 300,000 fully grown salmon went missing from the south coast of Uyea Isle, off the Shetland island of Unst, the whereabouts of more than half of them are unknown.
The company is hoping that the Scottish government’s fish patrol aircraft will be able to find the cages on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile one of the cages was due to be towed into Lerwick harbour’s Dales Voe on Thursday night by the Shetland whitefish trawler Opportune.
A second cage was being towed into port by another local trawler Devotion, though it is thought to be about 40 miles behind.
The Danish tug Westsund and a third Shetland trawler, Fairway, are 60 miles east of Shetland where the tow was first attached last Sunday.
They are now waiting to find the missing cages in heavy seas and a Force 8 north westerly gale.
The towline on the remaining 10 cages broke on Wednesday afternoon and by the following afternoon the cages had disappeared in the heavy seas. Two of the sea pens are thought to have broken free and sunk.
This is the third time the tow has broken and the second time the cages have been lost after they first went missing on Christmas Day.
Mark Warrington, managing director of Meridian Salmon Group, who own the cages, said: “There is a huge swell out there and the visibility is very poor, so we are putting the spotter plane up there again if we don’t find them in the meantime.
“The problem is these cages are not made for towing, they have no points to attach a towline.”
He said that once they find the cages they hope to break them up and tow them back one or two at a time.
They are depending on a break in the bad weather, which is forecast for Friday and expected to last over the weekend. Time is running out though, with strong winds forecast for Tuesday next week. “It’s a very small window, but here’s hoping,” he said.
Mr Warrington said he could not confirm reports that some of the fish, whose sale value amounts to £3 million, are still alive despite their ordeal.
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