A serious pollution incident has poisoned a large area of the seabed in Loch Hourn during
the night of April 19th. The Marine Directorate (MD) of the Scottish Government is currently investigating this event. This is a statement from Friends of Loch Hourn outlining what they know of the incident and its aftermath:
“This incident came to the attention of Friends of Loch Hourn (FoLH) when a local prawn creel fishermen contacted us on April 22nd to inform us that their catch in Loch Hourn comprised only an indeterminate species of small prawns not normally caught in the creels, worms and other creatures, all dead and smelling strongly of bleach. The creel fisherman took some photographs of his catch and had the presence of mind to take samples of the dead creatures and freeze them. Moreover, he observed that his creels were now clean, where previously they had fouling and algal growth. He had checked his creels on April 18th and then again on the 22nd, so was able to provide an accurate pollution window.
The full extent of ecological damage is not yet known, but the pollution has certainly affected an area covered by six fleets of 50 creels each. Two days later on April 24th, an adjacent area was traversed by a small trawler that hauled a net full of small dead marine animals, also with the stench of bleach. Again the skipper of this boat froze a sample of the dead creatures.
The area in question is between Li on the north shore of Knoydart and Corran. The coordinates of the creel boat’s fleets covered at least 1.5 Km2, the whole area in question possibly extending to three or more Km2of Loch Hourn. This, combined with the persistence of the smell (two weeks after the event) gives us cause for concern regarding the potential for long-term, potentially decadal damage to Loch Hourn’s benthic habitats.
It is not clear exactly what happened. Several large vessels (well boats) had been servicing the fish farm at the mouth of the loch some three miles to the west of the incident. At 10.30pm on the night of April 19th an unidentifiable, large vessel with many deck lights was seen in a location near the area where the prawn boat had his creels. We believe this vessel had turned off its AIS tracking system.
The reported odour of bleach strongly suggests a chlorine-based compound and the fact that these tend to sink and do not break down quickly raises the possibility that this pollution could spread even more widely in the loch through tidal action.
The Marine Directorate is now in possession of witness statements (taken on May 6th), the photographs and the frozen samples, but it appears that neither SEPA or Marine Directorate have the necessary lab facilities to analyse the samples.
There are really two stories in the facts behind this incident. For us, the first, largest, and most important is the tragic damage done to a huge swathe of the loch. And make no mistake, this is not some minor incident but in reality something closer to an oil spill. Just because it is all on the seabed, maybe 100 metres down, with nothing to actually see from the surface does not alter the fact that this is an ecological catastrophe. Loch Hourn is a slow flushing loch consisting of a deep glacial trough with a shallow sill at the loch entrance – this makes it special from an ecological perspective, but also vulnerable to environmental disasters such as this which may have a legacy of decades or more.
But another unfolding story is about the seeming lack of urgency of the response from the statutory agencies responsible for the protection of the environment. Between the immediate reporting of the discovery of the pollution to the Portree Fisheries Office on April 22nd by the creel fisherman and to SEPA on the 24th by FoLH, it took two weeks to get the relevant authorities (first SEPA and then the Marine Directorate) to start a formal investigation. In a situation like this, one would have thought that speed was of the essence: get on the ground, take sediment and water samples and determine the extent of the benthic and pelagic areas affected, before evidence becomes dispersed and pollutants get diluted. This has not been our experience.
We informed SEPA within 48 hours of being alerted to the pollution. One of our members spent the day answering email questions from the Fort William office. We had expected a site visit, but as time passed and nothing seemed to be progressing, we chased this further up SEPA’s chain of command and were told five days later that discharge events from vessels NOT at a farm site was outwith their remit, despite their initial interest and having been assured by SEPA’s ecology department that they were ready to give technical support.
SEPA then redirected us to the Marine Directorate, but now, over twenty days after the incident, there has been no move to come and take sediment samples or do even a preliminary survey of the extent of the damage. We definitely have confidence in the Marine Directorate officer assigned to investigate this case, but it appears unlikely that he will be provided with the resources necessary to do so thoroughly.
Did the local salmon farm have a hand in this? Is the Marine Directorate able to find the answers as to which chemicals caused the damage to the seabed and who is responsible? Is this whole sorry story of illegal dumping and lax oversight of the extractive marine industries just another example of how damage to our inshore marine environments is routinely allowed to go unpunished by our government? Or is there another story that explains this event?”
Friends of Loch Hourn is a not-for-profit, non-hierarchical, community-run organisation
established in 2020 with over 100 members who are concerned about the changing marine
ecology of Loch Hourn. Loch Hourn is located in one of the most remote areas on the west
coast of Scotland. The loch itself is a dramatic, deep fjord-like sea loch, surrounded by
several Munro peaks; it is in the heart of what used to be called the ‘rough bounds’, famous
for its wilderness, stark beauty and sparse population.
Tags: loch hourn, Marine, Pollution, Salmon Farm