Western Isles campaigners are calling for immediate action against the planning application for a new salmon farm in Broad Bay on Lewis.
The No Fish Farms in Broad Bay campaign was launched against Lighthouse Caledonia which has now lodged a planning application, and campaigners are holding an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue.
An online petition was created and has attracted international interest, but protesters are now stepping up their campaign by distributing paper-based petitions among local shops.
They are calling for a halt to all fish farm development in Broad Bay until further research has been conducted and say sea trout recently caught in the area showed unprecedented levels of sea-lice.
They claim the fish could only have come from local areas where there are fish farms, citing this as the cause of the high level of sea-lice.
Campaign spokesman Peter Urpeth said: “We are calling on Western Isles Council, SNH, Sepa and the fish farmers to call a halt to all development in Broad Bay and to work with such bodies as the Outer Hebrides Fisheries Trust to conduct fish tag surveys so that their migratory routes can be fully understood, and the areas and locations that are causing these sea lice infestations identified.”
He added: “The new risk to fish stocks across the islands that the Broad Bay fish farm represents is simply too great to permit until these increased infestations have been fully explored and the importance of Broad Bay to sea trout stocks has been fully understood.”
Former chairman of the Stornoway Angling Association, Gordon Mackenzie, said: “The club has concerns and they are going to put in an objection to Lighthouse’s plans.”
A spokesperson for Lighthouse Caledonia said: “We submitted a planning application for the Broad Bay site, together with an environmental statement.
“The application is now with the council for consideration and we look forward to hearing their decision in due course.”
The emergency campaign meeting will be held at The Hut, Back, Lewis, at 11.30am.