Dawnfresh loses 5,400 trout through hole in new net
Around 5,400 rainbow trout have escaped into Loch Awe from a freshwater farm run by Scotland's biggest trout farmer, Dawnfresh.
The company's farming director, Alison Hutchins, told the Oban Times that a hole along the seam of a new net was found on Thursday afternoon during routine weekly checks by the site team at the Braevallich farm.
Hutchins told the Oban Times: "The team immediately fixed the problem and notified Marine Scotland, before inspecting all of the other nets on the farm, finding no further problems.
"Using specialised equipment to count the fish in the net, regrettably we estimate that 5,400 fish have escaped into the loch. These fish are all bred as triploids so are sterile and, thus, unable to breed. The local fisheries board has also been alerted."
Hutchins added: "We would usually expect a net such as this to last between five and seven years so, as this one was only installed in November 2017, the manufacturers have already been onsite to remove the net to determine if it might have had a fault of some kind, as other likely causes such as predators are highly unlikely at this site."
The trout were 20 months and weighed an average of 1.8kg.
