SCOTLAND S nature preservation agency has raised concerns about the growth of fish farming and the risk to wild salmon as objections grow about how the aquaculture industry is dealing with a crisis over on-site deaths. Current concerns have focussed on one of the nation s most environmentally sensitive areas, the Firth of Clyde which is facing a 58% rise in the extent of fish farming through seven new and expanded projects which campaigners fear provides a serious risk to wild salmon while also acting as blots in a protected area. Sea lice are posing a major problem across Scotland’s farmed salmon industry, with parasites from open net farms earlier this year.
Forth rail tunnel plan considered technically viable
Tunnelling specialists have welcomed proposals to build a new rail tunnel crossing below the Firth of Forth in Scotland as part of plans put forward by the Scottish Green Party to improve the rail network and deliver on carbon net zero transport promises.
The Rail for All plan, published earlier this week, proposes a 14.5km long twin bore rail tunnel is driven under the Firth of Forth from Abbeyhill to Seafield, between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy, passing under Leith. The tunnel proposal is claimed to be essential to easing the bottleneck around Edinburgh’s Haymarket Station, which “affects the whole network”.
I REFER to the article headed “Scotland, so rich in wind and water, has no need for Johnson’s latest nuclear money-making wheeze” by SNP MP Douglas Chapman (Sunday National, December 20). Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (HANT), which was set up in 2013 to raise awareness of the high risk transport of nuclear waste from Dounreay to Sellafield by rail and sea and Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) by air, is encouraged to see the SNP position opposing nuclear weapons and nuclear power being highlighted. However, until Scotland becomes independent and as long as the Conservatives are in power with energy as a reserved matter, HANT maintains that the Scottish Government has to remain vigilant about UK plans to bury nuclear waste in a DGR (Deep Geological Depository) and to build SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) in Scotland.