Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Marauding Band of Jellyfish Wipes Out Entire Stock of Salmon in Northern Ireland.
Monday, November 26, 2007
All is lost.
After swooping in and killing the entire stock of 120,000 mature salmon at the Glenarm Bay organic aqua farm belonging to Northern Salmon Company. Although this was a devasting blow, the company still had young salmon at Red Bay which would have reached maturity in autumn 2008. The company thought they may be able to hang on until then, but that is no longer the case. All is now lost.
The jellyfish took their plundering directly to the juvenile salmon aqua farm at Red Bay days later and wiped them out as well.
According to Mark McCaughan, the Chief Fisheries Officer, Department of Agriculture Northern Ireland “It’s an unusual natural phenomenon which is unprecedented in Northern Ireland.”
Nothing could have prevented the attack.
The jellyfish surrounded the salmon cages by the billions, blocking tide movement, the salmon were stung and asphyxiated. Dead dead dead. Now the 120,000 200 tonnes of mature salmon will be sent to Co. Meath to be incinerated presumably the same fate will meet the juvenile salmon from Red Bay as well.
The Queen’s 80th birthday party guests were served Glenarm salmon. It was said to be one of the highlights of her birthday banquet. The Glenarm salmon had been gaining world wide fans of the product said to be simply the best. The product was making great inroads toward placing Northern Ireland on the map with delectable food stuffs for export.
The density of the jellyfish was such that 3 boats sent by Northern Salmon Co. to attempt a rescue were unable to move through the billions of jellyfish. The attack lasted nearly 7 hours with the jellyfish covering an area in the sea of 10 square miles and they were 35 feet deep.
These jellyfish which are Mauve Stingers can grow to be 10cm in diameter.
Jellyfish have been creating more and more problems in the past few years. Scientists say millions of Juvenile jellyfish have been swept into unfamiliar neighborhoods by unusually strong Atlantic Currents maybe caused by the changing climate.
In 2005 a swarm of jellyfish collected in a Swedish nuclear reactor’s cooling system prompting the Oskarshamn plant to shut down one of its 3 reactors. The plant cools its reactors with water from the Baltic Sea.
In Orange County California Millions of jellyfish appeared as if by magic or as fire Capt. Jim Turner in Newport Beach put it “like Mary Poppins” in 2005 also. California jellyfish seam to be more laid back than their marauding cousins in the Atlantic.
The species that hit the California coast were ‘giant black jellyfish. Giant compared to what? They had a canopy about 3 feet wide, and their tentacles were reaching up to 12 feet in length.
At the time scientists had only even known of this species for about 10 years, so they took the opportunity to catch and study these guys. Dennis Kelly, head of the Marine Science Department at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, speaking in Californese said “This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime-like-thing.”
Japanese fishermen have been dealing with the Jumbo Jellyfish problem which started in 2002. Oddly there isn’t a culinary market for these Jumbo Jellyfish and one wonders why Japan hasn’t made an effort to turn peoples buns toward jellyfish on a kaiser roll instead of whale meat.
China has had its own problems with jellyfish invasions too.
Photo thanks and notes. Belfast Telegraph
Labels: Climate Change, aquaculture, jellyfish, nuclear, open water aquaculture
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Marauding Band of Jellyfish Wipes Out Entire Stock of Salmon in Northern Ireland.
