Save our Mussels !

davet82

THE State is to spend €150,000 to protect an endangered MUSSEL — with one expert claiming: “It’s our panda.”

Ecologist Richard O’Callaghan will get a tasty €144,352 over two years for the nationwide implementation plan for the fresh water pearl mussel.

However, not everyone will agree with the large spend in these cash-strapped Troika times — €150k could also pay for 7,500 extra hours of special needs assistants, 100,000 prescription fees for over 70s, 700-plus extra carers’ allowances, 800-plus extra disability allowances — or just one year of ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s pension.

But defending the spend, mussel expert Dr Evelyn Moorkens yesterday described the mussel as “our tiger, our panda. We have international responsibilities to protect the mussel, it is just so important. I hope that what is being done is not too little, too late.”

Ninety per cent of all freshwater pearl mussels — which can produce valuable pearls — died out in Europe during the 20th century.

The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht said: “The Irish population of adult mussels has been estimated at in excess of 12 million. However these figures mask the reality that this is a species in severe decline and, in many cases, unable to reproduce because of poor water quality.” Dr Moorkens said: “They are a very special species.

“The mussel is both a keystone species — if you lose it, you will lose a whole series of species — and it is an umbrella species in that it offers protection to everything else around it.”

Dr Moorkens said: “The mussel is a very good indicator. If you have healthy mussels, you have a healthy river and healthy people.”

China has the Panda, the Australians have the Koala and Ireland has the Mussel...

jesus I hate this place sometimes...

Iwasfrozen

Well given the choice I wouldn't like to see any species extinct...

Remmy

Mussel beach

davet82

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Well given the choice I wouldn't like to see any species extinct...

but they look like snot

Iwasfrozen

davet82 wrote: »

but they look like snot

So does yore... no, I won't say it.

PizzamanIRL

If you have healthy mussels, you have a healthy river and healthy people

Ah stop.

Merkin

davet82 wrote: »

but they look like snot

You must have very strange snot.

Oysters look like snot. Mussels not so much. Unless you've got orange spongy snot.

stoneill

Does Panda taste like mussel?
Mussel is the chicken of the sea.

AnonoBoy

Moules Frites for all!

smash

Merkin wrote: »

You must have very strange snot.

Oysters look like snot. Mussels not so much. Unless you've got orange spongy snot.

I'm gonna puke...

PizzamanIRL

I'm eating and all I see is yee talking about one thing I hate, snot. Bastards.

runawaybishop

150k to protect a key indicator species? Sounds cheap enough.

Dravokivich

It'd be easier if they weren't so damn tasty!

syklops

davet82 wrote: »

China has the Panda, the Australians have the Koala and Ireland has the Mussel...

jesus I hate this place sometimes...

When it comes to government spending 150k is pennies. It really isn't worth getting outraged over.

MugMugs

syklops wrote: »

When it comes to government spending 150k is pennies. It really isn't worth getting outraged over.

Unless you're anti mussel

artanevilla

I went to a seafood disco once. Went onto the dancefloor and pulled a mussle.

MugMugs

artanevilla wrote: »

I went to a seafood disco once. Went onto the dancefloor and pulled a mussle.

......... I went home with crabs.

hfallada

I imagine if we don't save it expect a ****ing massive bill from brussles for environmental damage. The industrial areas of Germany have as much nature as a desert

Sarky

They should be spending a lot more. Keystone species = loads of other species use it as a food source. You lose the mussel, you lose the fish that eat them, some of which are worth a lot of money to the fishing industry. And you lose other food sources as some species find something else to eat. The knock-on effects are likely to be catastrophic.

€150,000 is frankly insulting. You'd have more luck plugging a black hole by tossing in sand grains one at a time. No Irish government has ever done anything smart with the sea. Ireland's biggest resource and they keep ignoring it or selling off bits or letting foreign trawlers scour tracts of it clean.

Duggy747

I don't like Mussels purely on the basis that I went to the driest New Years Party ever where everyone stopped drinking their wine and imported beer, sat down with cups of tea, and discussed where to find good mussels in Ireland.

Sitting there clutching my crate of Bavaria, I knew I was in the wrong place.....

davet82

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

So does yore... no, I won't say it.

Go on I double dare ye!

(I reserve the right to rat on you to a mod though)

Merkin wrote: »

You must have very strange snot.

Oysters look like snot. Mussels not so much. Unless you've got orange spongy snot.

I have a really really really bad cold at the moment

syklops wrote: »

When it comes to government spending 150k is pennies. It really isn't worth getting outraged over.

I'm not outraged at the spending, its the fact our panda is the mussel, like why cant we have the unicorn or something cool like that!

Dravokivich wrote: »

It'd be easier if they weren't so damn tasty!

agreed, I could eat a jar of mussels no problem, the trick is just pop them in your mouth without looking at them

anncoates

Always hate these articles where they take some random conservation or aid expense and tell you how many nappies it could buy for starving babies.

Are you ashamed to accredit your quoted articles to The Sun by the way...

davet82

anncoates wrote: »

Always hate these articles where they take some random conservation or aid expense and tell you how many nappies it could buy for starving babies.

Are you ashamed to accredit your quoted articles to The Sun by the way...

I love the sun and their crazy stories...

I'm still laughing at Ronan Keatings album flop headline... 'When you sell nothing at all' :pac:

davet82

Sarky wrote: »

They should be spending a lot more. Keystone species = loads of other species use it as a food source. You lose the mussel, you lose the fish that eat them, some of which are worth a lot of money to the fishing industry. And you lose other food sources as some species find something else to eat. The knock-on effects are likely to be catastrophic.

€150,000 is frankly insulting. You'd have more luck plugging a black hole by tossing in sand grains one at a time. No Irish government has ever done anything smart with the sea. Ireland's biggest resource and they keep ignoring it or selling off bits or letting foreign trawlers scour tracts of it clean.

stop your making me feel bad about that time I pissed in the sea

Ziphius

hfallada wrote: »

I imagine if we don't save it expect a ****ing massive bill from brussles for environmental damage. The industrial areas of Germany have as much nature as a desert

Germany has far more biodiversity than Ireland.

Take North Rhine-Westphalia for example. It is the country's most populous and industrial state. Nearly 18 million people live in an area a little bigger than Munster. 27% of the state is covered in forest (and much of this native woodland), in Ireland less than 10% is covered in forest and most of this is non native timber plantations.

There are plans to release, highly endangered, European bison (wisent) into the state due to the large area of suitable habitat.

kraggy

MugMugs wrote: »

......... I went home with crabs.

I took poppers as a mussel relaxant.

davet82

kraggy wrote: »

I took poppers as a mussel relaxant.

you could write headlines for the sun :pac:

good stuff

kraggy

MugMugs wrote: »

......... I went home with crabs.

I took poppers as a mussel relaxant.

mathepac

We got from - "… Ecologist Richard O’Callaghan will get a tasty €144,352 over two years for the nationwide implementation plan for the fresh water pearl mussel…. " to

Sarky wrote: »

... No Irish government has ever done anything smart with the sea. Ireland's biggest resource and they keep ignoring it or selling off bits or letting foreign trawlers scour tracts of it clean.

by what logical leap?

davet82

kraggy wrote: »

I took poppers as a mussel relaxant.

it was funnier the first time :rolleyes:

Mal-Adjusted

€150k could also pay for 7,500 extra hours of special needs assistants, 100,000 prescription fees for over 70s, 700-plus extra carers’ allowances, 800-plus extra disability allowances — or just one year of ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s pension.

The difference being that once the economy recovers, we can have all those things again. If the Mussel goes, it's gone for good.