Fact Sheets

Shellfish Farming

• Any publicly owned resource (in this case, the ocean) that can have hundreds of acres 'licensed' to private interests means that large sections of that resource are removed, at a stroke, from the use of any other person or group. Mussel and oyster farms remove a swathe of both water surface and seabed from access. For instance, someone could swim in a section of Lough Swilly in the morning, others could scuba-dive or snorkel in that same area in the afternoon, a sailboat could pass through enroute to harbour in the evening, and at night, an inshore fisherman might put down lobster or crab pots, dredge for scallops, or trawl for fish. Once the Department of the Marine grants a 'licence' for it, and the fish-farmer mounts nets and cages and lines and buoys, and anchors ropes to the seabed, you have, in essence, created an ownership of a heretofore 'unowned' resource.
  
  
• Shellfish licences do not need an Environmental Impact Assessment submitted with the licence application. No qualified expert has to determine the long-term environmental effects these sites, some of which cover more than 50 acres, might have.
  
  
• Fish farmers do not have to present any credentials or show any expertise in mariculture techniques. Often, they over-farm their allotment, causing a drop in growth rates, by placing too many lines in an area which cannot support them.
  
  
• Shellfish farms employ very few people. Many of the 25 sites currently applied for or operating in Lough Swilly list 1 or 2 employees only.
  
  
• For every 100 tons of mussels, 700 tons of excretions are deposited on the seabed. Some marine species thrive in this unbalanced marine environment ('super' starfish, for example) but other species - many of them indigenous shellfish - do not survive.
  
  
• EU subsidies and Irish tax concessions are available to holders of shellfish-farming licences. This has led to some cases of abuse: having received the subsidies, the licence-holders never actively farm their beds, leaving the site to deteriorate.
  
  
• 'Ireland of the litter' is not only a roadside phenomenon - flotsam and jetsam from ill-maintained shellfish farms is growing. Floating barrels, rusting trestles, and drifting lines are a hazard to boaters and commercial fishermen. At the very least, fouled propellers have led to hours of lost time and money; at worst, it could lead to tragedy.
  
  
• The barrels used to designate mussel sites often number in excess of 60, each the size of a large armchair. Drifting, they create a navigation hazard for other boats, necessitate a large expenditure of time and effort for those who drag them in, and despoil the beaches and rivers where they wash ashore.
  
  
• Department of the Marine officials, convinced that objections to shellfish farms are primarily visual, have suggested that using gray, rather than blue, barrels would be more aesthetically pleasing because they would 'blend in' with the water. The logic of presenting an even less-visible navigational hazard to unsuspecting boaters is questionable at best.
  
  
• Maritime traffic is expected to triple in the next two decades, according to the Naval Service.
  
  
• Lough Swilly is an area of rich marine archaeology. Most recently, news coverage has been given to an area where monastic fish-traps, dating from the 10th century, are known to be on the sea bed close to the site of the Killydonnel Friary. Some of the most recent shellfish-farming licences have been granted right on top of this area, potential damage from dredging, anchors and waste accumulation notwithstanding.
  
  
• Despite Lough Swilly having been declared a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive, and a Special Protection Area under the EU Birds Directive, 75% of the aquaculture applications that are within SACs have been approved by Duchas, the Heritage Service, which is responsible also for national parks and wildlife.
  
  
• There are currently registered EU complaints (and the EU has warned the Irish government) about destruction of wild bird habitats in Special Protection Areas. Lough Swilly has one of the most important SPAs for wild and migratory fowl in Ireland. Shellfish farmers who grow only one or two species of mussels or oysters impact directly on the number and variety of bird species who will visit or inhabit an area. Aggressive culturing of shellfish forces out indigenous types of mussels and oysters. In turn, if you change the foods available to birds, some species will vacate or not feed in that area.
  
  
• Shellfish farms in Mulroy Bay, among other sites in Ireland, have been closed several times this year because of infection with various toxins carried by algal blooms. These cause shellfish poisoning, some of it fatal. The government has been forced to pay millions of pounds in compensation to shellfish farmers, but there is no evidence of detailed research into the causes of these outbreaks. In Scotland, it is widely believed that algal blooms are related to the extra nutrients from nearby salmon farms. No research has been conducted into the issue in Ireland.

Shellfish Licenses in Lough Swilly

[back to top]