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The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has lost its entire stock of more than 100,000 fish to a spectacular jellyfish attack, its owners announced yesterday.
The Northern Salmon Co said billions of jellyfish - in a dense pack 25 kilometres wide and 10 metres deep - overwhelmed the fish in two net pens about 1.5km off the coast of the Glens of Antrim, north of Belfast, last week.
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.
Russell said he had never seen anything like it in 30 years in the business. The company, which bills its salmon as organic, faces likely closure unless it receives emergency aid from the British Government.
The mauve stinger jellyfish has a purplish nighttime glow and a propensity for terrorising bathers in the Mediterranean Sea.
- AP
