THE GOVERNMENT has been urged to take measures to stop importation of “alien” invasive plant and animal species which are having a serious impact on freshwater environments.
Two regional fisheries boards have issued appeals for action on the eve of the national holiday which commemorates the saint who allegedly rid the island of reptiles.
Restrictions could both protect the inland marine habitat and save thousands of euro currently being spent on coping with the difficulties caused, the Western and Shannon regional fisheries boards have said.
The EU has estimated that between €9 million and €12 million is being spent on protecting habitats from eradication by alien species throughout the EU annually.
Both boards believe the problem to be so critical that they have called for a special agency to monitor such imports which are sold through garden centres and pet shops.
The latest invasive plant detected by the Western Regional Fisheries Board is the water fern azolla filiculoides.
The board has already spent the winter removing thousands of tonnes of the curly-leafed pondweed lagarosiphon major from the Corrib, since it was discovered there five years ago.
The water fern was detected this month on a tributary of the river Clare which flows into Lough Corrib, and Dr Joe Caffrey of the Central Fisheries Board confirmed its identity.
The plant, which has a distinctive reddish colour, has “carpeted” the entire surface of the watercourse of some 2km.
Western board chief executive Dr Greg Forde said the plant, the size of a €2 coin, spreads rapidly and can grow to a third of a metre deep, depriving the watercourse of oxygen and killing fish.
It can grow to such density that it can cause a risk to children and animals who may mistake it for “dry land”. Conventional cutting does not contain it. A shrimp-like crustacean native to the Caspian Sea has also been detected in the Shannon catchment by the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board. The species hemimysis anomala has been found on Lough Ree in “large numbers” and on Lough Derg.
The species has already spread through Europe and has been found in the Great Lakes area of north America. Early research suggests it competes with juvenile fish, particularly coarse fish, for food and reduces fish numbers.
