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Nearly 50,000 salmon escape from Argyll fish farm after Storm Ellen

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Getty Images

Nearly 50,000 salmon escaped from an Argyll fish farm in Scotland which was damaged by Storm Ellen.

The North Carradale farm, near Campbeltown, suffered damage to four of its 10 fish pens.

It came as Storm Ellen brought strong winds to the country last week.

The company said mooring ropes attached to seabed anchors had broken.

The pens were secured by August 22 and put back in their original location on Tuesday.

Just over 30,000 of the farmed salmon also died as a result of the incident.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency told the BBC that it "shares concerns" regarding the loss of salmon.

She added: "Whilst we are confident that marine pens have been returned to their authorised position and there was no significant pollution, we are liaising with Mowi and Marine Scotland, who have responsibility for fish escapes and their reporting."

The North Carradale farm contained 550,700 salmon before the four pens were damaged.

Mowi said 48,834 salmon escaped, 30,616 died and 125,900 were harvested from the damaged pens.

The farm has now sent the 4.8cm thick rope to Aberdeen for further testing.

Environmental campaigners have raised concerns about the escaped fish breeding with wild Scottish salmon.

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