Red Tide raises its ugly head again

The beaches in east Donegal Bay got badly hit over the last week with the toxin producing phytoplankton. Hundreds of dead lugworms on Murvagh, Holmes and Inver beaches. Took pictures and it was really a sad sight. Talking to people saying they saw loads of dead flatties at Rossnowlagh. Nasty stuff but unfortunately unpreventable, last influx was five or so years ago and it had the same effect. Not sure how it will affect the fishing.
[img]http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/pictures/deadlug.jpg[/img]
Pete

Hi Pete,

As in previous posts, this is a very interesting occurance.
Fair play for the pic, too.
Stick it in the General Album, but you'll have to sign up first.

cheers!

Hi guys ,
Found exactly the same sight of literally thousands of dead/dying lug just south of Kilalla , Co Mayo , a couple of weeks ago .
A lot of those lug were still moving and looked in prime condition . They kept well but I totally blanked for about 4 hours off the boat in Sligo bay . Any connection or just a poor day ? Bad bait or no fish ?
Could this have anything to do with the recent reports about very few mackerel ??
Would I have been ill if I'd eaten the cockles I picked up from the same place ?
And how come the little streams were full of shrimp and fry which appeared to be perfectly OK ?
I plan to go collecting shrimp/prawns in the near future . I would eat some and use the others as bait . Should I avoid them altogether ?
BTW there was absolutely no hint of red anywhere .
Any practical advice ( as in do/not eat ) would be v welcome .
Cheers
nick

Hi Blowin,
Sorry that was me, forgot to sign in.Thats interesting that it has appeared in Killala also, might have occurred over a large area of the west coast? I wouldnt eat wild shellfish for a while until the episode dies down, they eat phytoplankton and the toxins would be residual in their flesh.

Seems to really hit the species that are sedentary, shrimps and fry maybe able to swim away from 'infected' zones. As its a phytoplankton it may be only species that are filter feeders that get hit. Don't really know to be honest. The beach stank something serious with the smell. There was a bit on the news on T na G the other night about the effects that it was having on the marine life in the area.

Pete

I was down in Mullaghmore on Friday evening, and was talking to some local lads they were telling me that shore mackeral have been very very scarse this year.

Any idea how long it will take for this to clear?

There's some very interesting stuff if you Google "red tide" and follow on from there . Different strains , how far they get up the food chain , degree of hazard to humans , results of official monitoring by area , etc etc .
However , couldn't find anything to say
- how long it takes for worm beds to recover
- whether prawns are at risk when shellfish are but swimming fish aren't .
- indirect effect on fishing more generally .
Only got through a few of the half million entries tho' .
N/

It appears to be pretty wide spread along the west coast, apparantly it causes some stress to fin fish around the gills as well as the mortalities shown above, which would explain why the mackeral aren't coming inshore. It does appear to be clearing around Donegal bay though, see latest info here:


http://www.marine.ie/industry+services/ ... e/test.htm