A HUGE clean-up was under way in Perthshire yesterday after 55 tonnes of farmed trout were lost in a poisoning attack.
Westmill Trout Farm in Rattray, part of the UK's largest hatchery operation, lost rainbow trout worth around #100,000 after a feeder stream was contaminated with the cyanide-based poison Cymag.
Contractors were brought into the farm yesterday to bury tonnes of dead fish.
Cymag, a poison often used by poachers, was put into the lade leading from the River Ericht to the trout farm.
The scale of attack suggests it was an act of vandalism.
The owner of the fish farm, Mr Richard Haldane, of Cloan Hatcheries in Auchterarder, said: ''It is appalling. This seems to be a particularly pointless thing to do, because we do not make enemies. We have not done anything to upset anybody locally, so why has this has happened?''
As soon as the poison entered the pond, many of the fish were starved of oxygen and perished. Within seconds the weight of dead trout smashed the screens at the outflows, allowing fish that were still alive to escape into the River Tay.
Mr Haldane said: ''Cleaning up is a massive operation. You can imagine just how difficult it is to remove a tonne of fish from underwater and there are fish lying on the land as well.''
He added: ''It is a big blow, but we shall survive.''
Yesterday, anglers lined the banks of the Ericht as they attempted to hook some of the escaped fish.
Police are now investigating the incident. One theory is that local poachers with an axe to grind may have been responsible.
Constable Roddy Wood, of Blairgowrie police station, said: ''We are following a definite line of inquiry.
''We think this may have may been some form of grudge by local poachers.
''But no 'good' poacher would have done this. A 'good' poacher normally puts a bit of cymag in a sock so that you only kill three or four fish. This is just vandalism. This is not someone just taking a fish for the pot. Someone has just thrown a whole tin in the river for the sake of a few fish.''
He added: ''These are just mindless idiots who don't think about anything.
''Heaven help any hotel that buys any of these illegal fish as we will prosecute it.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article