Monsterosity!
Loch Ness salmon farm spoils the view for fans trying to glimpse Nessie
THEY may not get a snap of the monster, but visitors to Loch Ness can usually console themselves with a photograph of the stunning view.
Now, however, a monster row has erupted over a fish farm planted way out in the water, which is spoiling the souvenir pictures of the thousands who flock there every year.
It was branded an eyesore by the holder of a world record for the longest Nessie vigil.
Steve Feltham, 58, is about to mark 30 years of keeping watch for the monster from Dores, on the loch’s south side. But he says the July 18 milestone will be ruined – like his view and that of ‘countless tourists’ – by the Mowi Scotland fish farm.
Mowi, the world’s largest producer of farmed Atlantic salmon, received planning permission from Highland Council last year to move its site 220metres (240 yards) north-east.
But furious residents, backed by the local community council, say it has instead ended up towards the middle of loch, interrupting the famous view.
Mr Feltham, who first visited Loch Ness in 1970, said: ‘This is a monsterosity. The only plus side is that it is more bait for Nessie, who has been reported around the cages over the years.’
Dores and Essich community council member Duncan Manson said: ‘There is concern in the community that it is further out than it should be.’
The 18 fish farm cages are used for smolts – young salmon – but Mowi was asked to move for part of the construction of the £550million Red John pumped storage hydro scheme.
A Mowi spokesman said: ‘While not wanting to move our pens that have been in place for 30 years, Mowi wishes to support renewable power projects that benefit the local community.’
He said the firm would work with the community on the final positioning of the fish pens.
‘Further out than it should be’