Almost 75,000 farmed salmon have escaped into open water in Loch Linnhe in the Highlands after a fish farm was damaged by Storm Amy.
Operator Mowi said a net on a pen at its Gorsten farm was torn during the severe weather.
The fish farm company said it was investigating the incident.
Scottish Greens MSP Ariane Burgess and charity WildFish Scotland said the escaped fish could pose a risk to wild salmon.
Ms Burgess said: “The escaped fish pose a serious threat to Scotland’s wild salmon.
“When farmed salmon breed with wild fish, it weakens the wild population and reduces their chances of survival. Every escape adds to the pressure on our already depleted wild salmon populations.”
WildFish Scotland has also raised concerns around farmed and wild salmon breeding.
It described the incident as one of the biggest in recent years.
However, the Scottish government said it was committed to working with industry, conservation groups and communities to ensure fish farming had a “sustainable and prosperous” future.
Loch Linnhe in the Scottish Highlands
The value of fish farms is a fallacy. The weakest part of the case is economics. It is not a big earner in exports and the product is poor, insipid and tasteless.
ACT’s David Seymour is promoting trout farming my calculated guess being persuaded by trout farm interests such as Talleys and Sandfords. Seymour says trout farming would benefit NZ by $30 m over 10 years. That’s chicken feed.
The recrerational trout fishing NZ has is worth about $138 million.
Trout farming would endanger that asset and public recreation by escapees undermining the genetic makeup of wild fishery and black market poaching. Mr Seymour should focus instead on bringing seafish to NZ consumer at an affordable price. Currently blue cod is about $70 a kg. Outrageous!
Does Seymour know of King Salmon’s fish farms in Marlborough where allegedly losses due to disease were high and truckloads of dead fish were taken to the Blenheim landfill? Escaped salmon from the farms has occurred too. I have caught them while snapper fishing.