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September

Shellfish

Since prehistoric times people around the shores of Carlingford Lough and Lough Foyle have feasted on their abundance of shellfish. In more modern times the shellfish were exported by the barrel full to Dublin, London and Paris. The inevitable happened. The mussels and oysters became scarce, prices rose and what had once been a staple food of the poor became a luxury for the rich.

Then the idea developed of trying to farm shellfish instead of relying on the dwindling wild stocks.

Today two species of oyster are farmed. One of the native Irish oyster, sometimes called the ‘flat oyster’ or ‘Edulis’. The other is the Pacific oyster, sometimes called ‘Gigas’. This is plumper than the native oyster and has a much rougher shell. Pacific oysters are also farmed inn Carlingford Lough. They grow faster under farm conditions than native oysters.

To farm oysters you basically put them in a sack of plastic mesh. When the tide is out you take the sacks down to the beach and lay them on trestles. The tide comes in and covers the sacks and the oysters open their shells and filter plankton out of the water, which is the food they need to make them grow. They are not given any additional food by the farmer--- but he does have to go down from time to time, when the tide is out, and sort and grade his oysters and clean the mesh sacks. It takes them several years to grow to a marketable size, but oysters from Carlingford and Foyle are highly sought after and fetch a good price

Mussels are also farmed in both loughs. The basic method is to seed the bed of the sea and then, when the mussels mature, to harvest them using dredges. Nowadays mussels are also grown on ropes suspended vertically in the sea. This makes harvesting even easier.

In fact shellfish farming in general has a very good impact on the environment. Shellfish are not fed, so there is no input going into the lough, and they feed by filtering water, which must be absolutely free of any pollutant if they are to be healthy and safe to eat. Anywhere that you see an oyster or mussel farm you can be sure that the water quality is first rate.

The end product of shellfish farming is a gourmet’s delight that is exported all over Europe. And also enjoyed in the many fine seafood restaurants around the shores of both Loughs.