A SCHEME to safeguard the Irish Sea's £54 billion shellfish industry was launched in Bangor.
The SUSFISH project, which was launched at Bangor University on Tuesday, aims to produce fishing management rules that will protect the industry for the next 100 years.
Project leader Dr Shelagh Malham, of Bangor University, said that climate change was a major threat to the industry.
“Increased incidences of disease and death in marine organisms have been linked to climatic alterations and the results of human activity,” she said. “This project will assess the effects of those impacts in the Irish Sea and determine strategies to safeguard this important marine industry.”
Shellfish, including cockles, muscles and edible crabs, are one of the most common creatures in the Irish Sea, but experts fear that increased temperature, disease, ocean acidification and invasive species will threaten the industry’s future.
The SUSFISH project received £2.9million of funding from the Ireland Wales Cross Border Territorial Cooperation Programme.
The research, conducted in partnership with Aberystwyth University and University College Cork, will identify adaptation and mitigation measures to the impacts of climate change and produce guidelines for the future fisheries management for the area.
For more information on the SUSFISH project, visit www.irelandwales.ie/projects/priority_2_theme_2/susfish.