Jellyfish kill 100K salmon in N.Ireland

Jellyfish kill 100K salmon in N.Ireland
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has lost its entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth some $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.

Stinging jellyfish swarm hits Scotland
Fri Nov 23, 2007 4:34pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Millions of stinging baby jellyfish have been spotted off Scotland just days after another swarm wiped out Northern Ireland's only Salmon farm, the Marine Conservation Society said on Friday.

The organisation, which said the abnormal swarms of baby mauve stinger and compass jellyfish were due to wind and tidal factors, urged fish farmers and the public to report any sightings to help monitor their progress.

"It is quite unusual for this number of juvenile jellyfish to be occurring in UK waters at this time of year," said Anne Saunders, MCS Scottish Projects Officer.

"But these blooms are phenomenal and consist of millions of individuals, being washed here by strong Atlantic currents."

Compass jellyfish are common in British waters during the summer, but mauve stingers are relatively uncommon.

In recent years the mauve stinger has bloomed in vast numbers in the Mediterranean, forming a major bathing hazard.

"Jellyfish swarms can impact on fish and shellfish farms, and while the conditions causing these current events remain unclear, such swarms may become more prevalent in Scottish waters as a result of climate change," Saunders said.

(Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2313072420071123