Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue has signed a new Statutory Instrument that permits fishing for mussel seed within the State’s exclusive fishery limits.
SI No 461 of 2021 — Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction (Mussel Seed) (Opening of Fisheries) Regulations 2021 — allows authorised individuals and organisations to fish for mussel seed in most Irish coastal areas, with the exception of the Moville and Louth areas, and areas where it’s prohibited by a Fisheries Natura Declaration.
Mussel seed is the raw material of the mussel farming industry. The biomass comprises both dead mussels and young wild mussels that can be grown to full size in the appropriate aquaculture facilities.
The practice of dredging for mussel seed is a controversial one, however, with conservationists previously claiming that industrial-scale fishing could leave Ireland’s coastal waters “full of jellyfish and little else”.