Billions of jellyfish wipe out N. Irish salmon farm
Pastor Dale Morgan
updated 2:42 p.m. EST, Wed November 21, 2007
*Billions of jellyfish wipe out N. Irish salmon farm*
* Story Highlights
* Jellyfish came in 10-square-mile, 35-foot deep pack
* Company boats couldn't make way through jellyfish to rescue salmon
* Mauve stinger jellyfish normally found in Mediterranean
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has
lost its entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth $2 million,
to a spectacular jellyfish attack, its owners said Wednesday.
The Northern Salmon Co. Ltd. said billions of jellyfish -- in a dense
pack of about 10 square miles and 35 feet deep -- overwhelmed the fish
last week in two net pens about a mile off the coast of the Glens of
Antrim, north of Belfast.
Managing director John Russell said the company's dozen workers tried to
rescue the salmon, but their three boats struggled for hours to push
their way through the mass of jellyfish. All the fish were dead or dying
from stings and stress by the time the boats reached the pens, he said.
Russell, who previously worked at Scottish salmon farms and took the
Northern Ireland job just three days before the attack, said he had
never seen anything like it in 30 years in the business.
"It was unprecedented, absolutely amazing. The sea was red with these
jellyfish and there was nothing we could do about it, absolutely
nothing," he said.
The species of jellyfish responsible, Pelagia nocticula -- popularly
known as the mauve stinger -- is noted for its purplish night-time glow
and its propensity for terrorizing bathers in the warmer Mediterranean
Sea. Until the past decade, the mauve stinger has rarely been spotted so
far north in British or Irish waters, and scientists cite this as
evidence of global warming.
Russell said the company, which bills its salmon as organic and exports
to France, Belgium, Germany and the United States, faces likely closure
unless it receives emergency aid from the British government.
"It's a disaster," he said.