#FishFarm - The Marine Institute has moved to highlight what it says are a "number of inaccuracies" in a news story regarding plans for the controversial Galway Bay fish farm.
Yesterday (15 August) TheJournal.ie published an article on An Taisce's criticism of a Marine Institute-sponsored study being used to support the case for Bord Iascaigh Mhara's (BIM) planned organic salmon farm, which has faced much opposition from environmentalists and local anglers.
In a statement quoted by the news website, the State's national trust referred to a recently published research paper from the University of Toronto that is said to identify "fundamental errors" in the Marine Institute study.
The Marine Institute today hit back at TheJournal.ie's claims, stating that the study in question is a scientific paper published in the Journal of Fish Diseases and "is not connected to the BIM proposal for a fish farm in Galway Bay".
The study, it adds, is based on data collected from eight locations around the Irish coast between 2001 and 2009, and concludes that the impact of sea lice on wild salmon is "unlikely to be a significant factor" in their mortality rates.
However, last month Inland Fisheries Ireland expressed "serious concerns" over the findings - and the Marine Institute concedes that it will consider the new research from Toronto that questions the methodology of the study.