ABOUT
SAVE PAPAY
Read below to find out more about why we are against the new fish farm at East Moclett.
MISSION & HISTORY.
Papa Westray is a tiny northern island, in the Orkney islands. At only around 4 miles long and a mile across at its widest point this beautiful place is renowned for its birdlife and pristine beaches. Over recent years, Papay’s waters have been infiltrated by “inshore” fish farms as the industry has expanded exponentially.
On the 8th of September 2022, despite over 100 objections, Orkney Council granted permission for one of the largest fish farms in Scottish Marine History to set up in the waters East Moclett, North Sound, Papa Westray, Orkney.
There are already six existing fish farms, at Ouseness, Vestness, East Skelwick Skerry, Bay of Cleat North, Bay of Cleat South, and Scarfhall Point, which are close to the shore, but this seventh, classed as ‘offshore’, is still well within the definition of ‘inshore’ and is likely to cause even greater harm in the water channels around the island.
This project comprises six cages with a 160-metre circumference, with a mooring containment area of 452,000sq metres, a 600 tonne feed barge, and a biomass of 3,850 tonnes. These are among the largest cages used in the Scotland. This is massive industrial scale fish farming!
Furthermore, buried in the East Moclett submission is an equation to calculate the total faecal aquatic excrement from the proposed fish farm. Our maritime expert and a mathematics scholar was eventually able to work out that faecal effluence of the 3,850 tonnes of biomass from the proposed CAS site, and accepted by Orkney Island councillors, equates to the output of 49,500 humans per day, every day.
If you add the biomass of the six existing fish farm sites in Papa Sound (biomass 5,010 tonnes of fish), this is 8,860 tonnes, the equivalent to the excrement of 116,952 humans depositing their waste into the water. This is twice the population of the new Scottish city of Dunfermline in Fife. This is untreated waste.
THE HOLM OF PAPAY.
FISH FARM
FACTS.
❖ Cooke Aquaculture Scotland (CAS) claim that this will be the UK’s largest ‘off shore’ fish farm, 2800m from our south east shore.
❖ The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 states that ‘inshore is 0-12 nautical miles and off shore is 12- 200 nautical miles’ – CAS state that this an off shore site which by definition it is clearly not
❖ The proposed industrial development site is over 111 acres (twice the size of the Holm of Papay at low tide).
❖ The proposed development site is in very close proximity to 3 very sensitive areas: Papa Westray Marine Protected Area (MPA) – as close as 600m, Holm of Papay Site of SpecialScientific Interest (SSSI), Papa Westray North Hill (RSPB Reserve) & The Holm SpecialProtection Area (SPA).
❖ The site covers over 111 acres of wild marine habitat, important feeding & breeding grounds for many marine mammals, and birds including the Black Guillimot (MPA).
❖ There are already 6 CAS established fish farms around the southern end of Papay, to the west (Vestness & Ouseness), south west (Bay of Cleat North & Bay of Cleat South) and to the SouthEast (East Skerry). This will be the 7th fish farm in a relatively sea area surrounding Papay.
❖ The 69.1m feeding barge will be a permanent man made structure on Papay’s only remaining sea scape vista with accessibility to the shoreline, that is currently free from fishfarm activity.
❖ The faecal effluent calculation of the proposed development is equal to that of 49,500 people.
❖ The cumulative faecal effluent calculation of the proposed development and the existing 6sites is equal to that of 116, 952 people, all day every day!