Killer jellyfish salmon attack carries £1m sting in tail

Local & National

Swarm wipes out organic farm

Thursday, November 22, 2007

The owners of Ulster's only salmon farm have said it may take two years to recover after billions of tiny jellyfish wiped out more than 100,000 salmon, causing damage over £1m.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Michelle Gildernew, has been called in to devise a financial package to save the Glenarm Organic Salmon Company.

Last week's invasion of Mauve Stingers at Glenarm Bay and Red Bay, Cushendun, off the Co Antrim coast, lasted for nearly seven hours with the jellyfish covering a sea area of up to 10 square miles and 35 feet deep.

The Mauve Stingers, which can grow up to 10cm in diameter, stung and stressed the salmon which were being kept in cages about a mile out into the Irish Sea. The fish died of their injuries and the trauma of the attack.

At one stage staff in three boats tried to reach the cages, but such was the density of the jellyfish they struggled to get through before it was too late.

It could take at least two years for the owners to recover from the setback and the firm's future was in doubt.

"We are still assessing the full extent, but it's a disaster," said John Russell, managing director of Northern Salmon Company.

Mr Russell described last week's attack as unprecedented.

He said: "In 30 years, I've never seen anything like it. It was unprecedented, absolutely amazing. The sea was red with these jelly fish and there was nothing we could do about, it, absolutely nothing.

"It's touch and go if we can survive this. Our salmon is a premier product which fronts up the seafood industry in Northern Ireland and everything must be done to protect it. It's really important for the seafood industry that we get up and going again, because we've taken a huge financial hit. We need to keep this operation going and in order to do so we need financial aid."

Mr Russell from Fort William, Scotland, who took over as the company's new MD just three days before the attack, said: "I have never experienced such concentrations of jellyfish spread over such a wide area. The vastness was unbelievable.

"You cannot legislate for something like this."

Fish from Glenarm is sold to some of London's leading restaurants. The Queen had salmon cooked for her on her 80th birthday last year. It was also exported to France, Belgium, Germany and the United States.

Mauve Stingers are normally found in warmer waters.

Christine Maggs, Professor of Marine Biology at Queen's University in Belfast said the species is well-known for its population fluctuations which peak almost every 10 years.

"I would say this is the peak of the cycle," she told Radio Ulster.