Cromane set to lose £2m mussel harvest

July 1995

A POTENTIAL £2m mussel harvest in Cromane has been wiped out by crabs which have eaten mussel seed planted at a cost to the State of over £161,000, The Kerryman confirmed this week.

BIM officials are to visit the area next week to investigate the phenomenon which will result in no mussels being harvested in Cromane this season according to Castlemaine Harbour Co-op Chairman, Sean 0 Suilleabhain.

And now local man Patrick O’Reilly has called on Marine Minister Sean Barrett to hold an independent enquiry into the collapse of the mussel industry in Cromane and what he describes as the waste of taxpayers’money.

“Who is responsible for the loss of the Minister of the Marine’s £162,000? The whole mess must lie sorted out if the employment potential of Cromane is to be realised,” he stated.

Three boats employing 14 men planted over 500 tonnes of mussel seed in Cromane in September. October and November of last year according to Coop treasurer, Denis Teahan.

The sowing of the seed was financed by BIM at a cost of £161.352 which was paid to 25 individual local fishermen from a grant allocation of £202,500. Mr 6 Suilleabhain said he now wants the remaining £41,148 to be released to finance the catching of the crabs which have wiped out the seed mussels.

It was anticipated that the mussels would yield a harvest worth £2m for local fishermen. A low survival rate of 1:1 would have vielded over 7,800 tonnes of mussels, which at £200 a tonne would have resulted in a minimum cash catch of £1.56m. However, it was expected that the yield would easily exceed this minimum.

BIM aquaculture shellfish specialist, Terence O’Carroll, anticipated that a better return on the seed would be achieved yielding far greater returns for the fishermen.

Mr Teahan told The Kerryman there were now very few fully grown mussels in Cromane which was once regarded as the finest mussel fishery in Ireland.

“There are not enough mussels to do this season and when they are gone we will have nothing left. What seed we have put down has been eaten by the crabs.”

“I don’t know what we are going to do to make a living — something will have to be done to get rid of the crabs,” said Mr Teahan.

Over one million crabs have been potted and removed from the harbour by Local mussel fishermen according to Mr Teahan who says that an all out assault on what he described as vermin crab is now required to save the mussels fishery.

Mr Jimmy Deenihan T.D , Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry visited Listowel to meet with Kevin Empey, Shannon Development, Tralee, and Joan McGuire, Manager of Music Office, Dingle, to discuss final details for the ‘Trends in Rural Tourism’ seminar being organised by Shannon Development.