Salmon's freedom leap causes stir

The salmon escaped from a farm on Orkney

An escape of farmed salmon caused a fishing frenzy among the surprised residents of Orkney.

The salmon broke free from nets over the Easter weekend and ended up in Kirkwall Harbour.

Hundreds of people gathered to hook the prized fish from the water and many ignored warnings about illegal fishing from local policemen.

People hooked the salmon from the harbour

BBC reporter Dave Gray said: "The police came down on Sunday and tried to stop folk but this didn't last very long.

"Obviously the old 'resources versus results' element came into it and I think they thought there was no point in trying to stop them.

"When I was down there on Sunday there was about 200 people trying to hook salmon so it was a bit of a waste of time trying to stop them."

Environmentalists have warned that the escape could seriously affect wild stocks.

Friends of the Earth Scotland has called for a tightening of the laws that control fish farming.

They believe farms have a poor record at preventing escapes and said the breach could lead to diseases being spread among the wild salmon population

'Genetic pollution'

Richard Dixon, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said the incident raised a number of issues.

"The salmon farms really aren't good enough at preventing escapes and the problem is you then have fish which are larger than the wild salmon competing for the same food supply," he said.

"There is also the issue of genetic pollution - if these fish are not sterilised and they breed with the wild fish, then you are changing the genes of the wild salmon because they have been selectively bred."

The authorities must find out whether the farmed fish were carrying any disease, he added.

However, people in the farmed salmon industry have consistently denied that their stocks pose any threat.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said the damage was less serious than it might have been because there are relatively few salmon in Orkney's rivers.

The Scottish Executive said it was preparing legislation which would force owners of fish farms to notify the authorities of any escapes.