'Toxic' salmon farm barge dumped at scenic Scots bay could be spewing chemicals at Loch

26.12.2022 - 13:07 / dailyrecord.co.uk

Furious locals have been told it could be “many weeks” before a “ toxic” salmon farm barge dumped in a scenic Highland bay can be salvaged.

It’s feared the sunken barge “the size of a house” could be spewing chemicals into the pristine environment at Loch Reraig, near Kishorn.

The 400-tonne fish feed container sank at a farm owned by Faroese firm Bakkafrost in Portree, Skye, during last year’s Storm Arwen.

And in August, a 500m exclusion zone was placed around the site after “significant levels” of hydrogen sulphide and other gases “toxic in composition” were detected emitting from the vessel.

Locals are now fuming that the wreck has been beached in the middle of Reraig Bay, just 150 yards from houses there.

It’s parked on the edge of the Loch Carron marine protected area (MPA), home to rare flame shell beds.

Chris Troup, who stays in one of the houses on the bay, said he was “appalled” at the “obscene act” of dumping the barge in their neighbourhood.

Speaking to the Record, he said: "This is a bay where people come to walk their dogs, pick mussels and shellfish and lots of other things. It's a beautiful bay with fantastic wildlife.

"It's like corporate vandalism - they don't give a s**t, they think 'we'll just do it and take the consequences'."

Mr Troup, 78, also revealed he had managed to contact a senior manager at the firm by phone about the barge.

He said: “He wouldn’t tell me anything but I kept probing and probing him… I asked him how long it was going to be there, and he said it could be ‘many weeks’ - that was his phrase.”

The barge had lain on the seabed at Portree until recently, when it was raised so it could be emptied of 690 tonnes of waste water and feed and taken for repair or scrap.

It was towed from Skye by a