A serene Highland bay has been left a “death zone” by a sunken fish farm barge, furious locals have claimed.
Residents of Loch Reraig, near Kishorn in the north-west Highlands, have demanded answers after they observed a trail of destruction along the seabed from the damaged vessel which was dumped there without warning.
The 400-ton Bakkafrost-owned barge was finally towed away from the scenic beauty spot this week after a smelly two-month ordeal for locals.
But they were distraught after later discovering the shoreline at low tide littered with “thousands” of dead razor clams, clams, seaworms and other marine life.
Chris Troup, who lives in one of the two houses on the bay, said the appalling sight was like nothing he had ever witnessed in 17 years at the property.
He told the Record: “There are now two massive, great holes in the seabed that will take several years to recover.
“But what’s most distressing is that, both where the barge was sitting and all around it, there are thousands of dead clams and dead razor clams - literally awash with them - which have been killed.
“We’ve never seen anything like this - and you can’t repair it.”
Mr Troup added: “Usually, we might see a few of them, two or three, on this pristine, sandy beach when the tide goes out - and we obviously see a few dead ones because they’re creatures, they live and they die.
“But we don’t see thousands and thousands of dead ones in piles where that barge has been. It is a massive death zone.”
We told in December of fears the massive grey eyesore barge - branded “as big as a house” by locals - could be damaging the pristine bay.
The fish feed container sank at a farm owned by the Faroese firm in Portree, Skye, during Storm Arwen in 2021.
As part of a salvage operation which the company says has so far cost it £7million, a giant floating crane left the barge beached at Reraig two months ago, blaming bad weather.
Mr Troup, 78, said living with the barge just a few hundred yards from his house for nine weeks had been a “stressful” ordeal - as they dealt with a rotten-egg stench from decomposing chemicals in the feed and loud noise as workers attempted to further drain the container.
He added: “If they’d planted this on some high-usage tourist beach - like North Berwick, or Loch Lomond - can you imagine the outcry?
"It doesn’t make any difference where you put it, it was wrong. It's so irresponsible."
And he hit out at governing authorities and agencies who he said had “passed the buck” rather than taken serious action to get the container removed and hold those responsible to account.
In response to these claims, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said questions should be directed to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
An MCA spokeswoman said: “We are looking into this and will be contacting the company direct to ask them to get the pipe removed. The other pictures we will send to environmental organisations for their consideration.”
Bakkafrost Scotland said it had "expressed our apologies" to the Troups over the saga.
A spokesman added: “Following the concerns raised by Mr and Mrs Troup, our team have inspected the recovery site and undertaken a review of the area, including removal of any debris which may have been left behind during the operation."
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