The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
AN ALIEN invasion is underway in Lough Derg causing concern for the local ecosystem. The alien in question is a mussel called the guagga, originally from Ukraine, which has been found in the lake by a local marine biologist. The guagga mussel was found in early July in Ireland. A team from UCD, led by Dr Jan Robert Baars, discovered its presence in large numbers in Lough Ree. Lower numbers were found downstream in Lough Derg by Dr Dan Minchin of the Lough Derg Science Group, where it is expected its numbers will increase. Dr Minchin has been working on projects with Dr Baars on the River Shannon since 2016. This species, Dreissena rostriformis bugensis, known as the quagga mussel, is expected to expand and suppress the numbers of the closely-related zebra mussel that arrived in Ireland in 1994. It is thought the zebra mussel arrived as fouling on imported leisure craft ferried from the Midlands of Britain. It is …
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