The State's first guide to aquaculture has just been installed in Bantry Bay, Co Cork.
The interpretative noticeboard was unveiled on Saturday by the Minister of State for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Hugh Byrne, close to the Abbey graveyard, which overlooks Bantry harbour.
Compiled by Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the noticeboard describes how the 48-kilometre-long bay - haven for oil shipments - is now also home to a major shellfish industry.
Unfortunately, the unveiling comes just after a recent warning from the Southern Health Board involving consumption of shellfish in the region.
The noticeboard's text records the history of the area, which boasts one of the greatest concentrations of megalithic and neolithic monuments in Europe.
It recalls how in 1689 the greatest sea battle in Irish waters was fought between French and English fleets.
This was followed over a century later by the abortive invasion of the French in support of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. The ship La Surveillante was one of the 47-strong French armada, and now lies in 30 metres of water.
The noticeboard recalls the anchoring of the British naval fleet in Bantry before the first World War, and how it was an important naval base up to the beginning of the second World War.
In 1979, 10 years after construction of a Gulf Oil terminal base for Europe on Whiddy Island, the French tanker Betelgeuse exploded with the loss of 50 French and Irish lives.
On foot of the withdrawal of Gulf Oil from Whiddy, other employment possibilities were explored - including shell and finfish farming.
Local fishermen co-operated to increase harvest yields from about 500 tonnes annually to 2,500 tonnes. Since the early 1980s, this figure has risen to about 4,000 tonnes a year, valued at £8 to £10 million.
The principal farmed shellfish are mussels, but salmon farming has also been established. The cultivation list is expanding every year, with an urchin hatchery and a scallop enhancement programme in place. Bantry Bay also has a thriving fishing industry, with the main base at Castletownbere.
