Cyanobacterial blooms have been occurring in Lough Neagh and other Northern Irish freshwater lakes for 30-40 years. In the last couple of summers, the conditions have been particularly favourable for a variety of reasons – hot weather, higher water temperatures interspersed with some heavy downpours, increasing ground water run offs and of course the zebra mussels filtering organic material out of the water body, with the exception of the blue green algae, increase the ability for the sunlight to penetrate deeper and contribute to the water temperature being increased. Further research on zebra mussel ecology is required to establish whether they have any other direct impacts, it would be foolish to make any rash statements about what they can or can’t do at this stage
In this video, we meet Rose Muir of Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), who talks about some of the invasives that that agency wishes to raise awareness about. Rose explains that while some non – native species are brought into the country accidentally, some are released deliberately. Most non – natives are harmless, but a small percentage become invasive, damage our ecosystems and cause real problems. Some compete with our native species by growing more quickly.
There’s an annual balsam bash each year at Oxford Island and the public are encouraged to take part. This manual removal of this invasive is kinder to the environment and is beneficial to participants wellbeing too.
Rose would appeal to the public to be mindful of cleaning jet skis and paddle boards when moving them from one waterway to another as sometimes invasives can be moved from one water body to another on leisure crafts. Follow the CHECK CLEAN DRY protocol – https://invasivespeciesni.co.uk/what-can-i-do/check-clean-dry/
Landowners may, if they fulfil the requirements, avail of funding for taking action against invasives and should visit the DAERA website for more information on funding streams available.
