Fish and centres

Two pillars of the local economy came into focus today. Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Hebrides News reports, has approved a 25-year lease for the site of the proposed salmon processing plant at Arnish. This could generate 100 jobs, a veritable bonanza of employment by Western Isles standards. When putting the link through a URL shortener, it made me smile because the title came out as:
Arnish Lighthouse caledonia lease.

What has been annoying me over the last couple of weeks is the unseemly squabble over the site of the St Kilda centre. There are three contenders: Mangurstadh (Lewis), Leverburgh (Harris) and Cleitreabhal (North Uist). A consultancy firm has conducted a survey of the three bids, and Mangurstadh came out on top, as I reported a few days ago. The Harris and North Uist bidders are now calling on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to reject that advice when its tourism committee meets in the next couple of days.Yes, let's carry on fighting like ferrets in a sack. At the end of the day, there are quite a few places inside AND outside the Western Isles where the St Kilda Centre could be located. I recently read a piece by a man from Ness, who argued that his area in North Lewis had the strongest cultural link to the St Kildans of old: they still go hunting for birds, to name but one argument. How about Glasgow, from where the steamer used to depart? How about Lochaline in Morvern, where the St Kildans landed after they were evacuated in 1930?

However, each of the three bidders has a lot to lose by not getting the Centre, so this fight will carry on to the bitter end.

Employment

Some good news on the employment front this week - provided HIE gets its finger out. Lighthouse Caledonia is planning a £5 million fish processing factgory at Arnish, which could provide 100 jobs. A year ago, LC closed down a similar plant at Marybank, but say it is not economical to reopen those premises.

Also, a new fishfarm will be opened in Broadbay (the expanse of water between Point and Back), with two other sites being revived to keep the new factory operational all year. It is now up to Highlands & Islands Enterprise to come up with the money to make this enterprise a reality. I wonder if they'll put up a bus service to Arnish to take people back and forth from town.

Fishfarms

It was announced a few days ago that a major producer of farmed salmon in Scotland was planning to establish large fishfarms in the open seas of the Minch. Up till now, fishfarms have been sited in sealochs around the West Coast of Scotland. The fishfarms would be double the size of the present fishfarms and carry accommodation for its workers. Such units apparently already exist in Norway and Canada.

Whether this is a good idea or not is difficult for me to judge. Salmon farming on an industrial scale carries environmental risks, such as those posed by the toxicity of substances used to treat infestations and infections in the fish; the amount of effluent generated by the fish and the problems of dead and escaped fish. The abovementioned proposals quote a shorebase at Barra, but I cannot imagine that this would generate much employment for these islands. The processing plants, such as existed in Scalpay and Stornoway, have been either closed, mothballed or downgraded - for the simple reason that they are not on the mainland.

I am posting this entry very much as a discussion piece, and welcome considered comments.