MSN reports a Shetland Coastguard spokesman said: "They are big cages and they are all attached to one another inone big lump, although they are starting to break up now. There was a boat out there that got a hold of it but he didn't have the power to tow it. In fact, it was towing him. It is drifting around there so it is a threat to navigation."

ForArgyll reports  that despite BBC Orkney and Shetland online news reports, SEPA was only alerted by ForArgyll.

Ewan Kennedy of the Saveseilsound  campaign says the maximum permitted by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is  2,500 tonnes, which at 4kg per fish is 600,000 salmon.

The BBC report indicates that local thinking is that the cages went adrift on Christmas Eve and it is thought unlikely that the salmon will still be in the cages.

Lakeland Unst Ltd has been ‘urged to tow them to shore’ suggesting a complete lack of action to date on the part of the fish farm management. Local boats and boats in the area have been also been asked to help.

As For Argyll points out " had an incident like this happened in The Minch consequences would have been catastrophic. The nature of hazard the cages present to shipping is not normally a sinking, but they could entangle and stop ships.

"Without emergency towing capacity, the consequences of such disablement would depend on what the affected ship was carrying, and at what strength and in which direction the wind was blowing. "Shipping and the local marine environment in The Minch would be helplessly prey to chance in such a scenario."