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A shellfish farmer is counting the cost in tens of thousands of pounds after a temporary closure order was lifted from his farm in Lamlash bay.
Bill Currie and his son David were back in business this week after being forced to postpone their first harvest of the mussels after high levels of E.coli were detected in the water.
For two weeks they were unable to harvest them and send them to market.
‘We have lost a lot of money,’ said Bill. Each day should have harvested a tonne of mussels. Over a fortnight that is 14 tonnes and tens of thousands of pounds.’
Bill, owner of Arran Shellfish, carried out routine weekly tests in the water on June 10 and discovered high levels of the bacterium.
Bill said an average reading was about 200. This one read 18,000.
‘The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said they had never seen anything like it. The reading was almost off the scale,’ he said.
David Wilbraham, Ayrshire area manager for SEPA, said the contamination level was so high it was difficult to believe it had been caused by a sewage outflow.
He said: ‘If anything the E.coli levels in the bay should be decreasing. The outdated septic tanks were replaced and the sewage is now getting carried further out to sea.’
Bill said he was angry that Scottish Water would not accept responsibility for the contamination.
‘When I contacted them they said that there had been an incident on June 18, seven days after I did the test which closed us down,’ he said. ‘Apparently a faulty pump was to blame on that occasion.’
A spokesman from Scottish Water confirmed there was a big overspill of sewage directly into Lamlash bay.
Contaminated
He said that despite sewage spilling into the bay for 12 hours on June 18, it would not have contaminated the mussel beds as it happened eight days after the Food Standards Agency temporarily closed Bill’s business.
Arran Shellfish was established in 1999 and it took Bill five years of rigorous testing to finally get under way.
Unlike fish, mussels are particularly susceptible to E.coli contamination. They are bivalve molluscs which filter water to eat. The E.coli bacteria can stay in the filter of the mussel for days.
However, Mr Currie was keen to point out that now they have been given the all-clear the mussels are ready to eat. He hopes to begin the harvest on Monday.
