Dr. Cecil Beamish:

-----rope muscles or bottom mussels. All of that is equally covered by the context that was established for aquaculture. There are specific markets and specific site issues affecting each of those types of aquaculture developments. In many ways aquaculture is only in its infancy. The committee deals with agriculture, which has been around for 3,000 or 5,000 years. It has been refined and developed with different species etc. Aquaculture is essentially a 30 or 40-year old global venture now producing some 60 million tonnes a year. It is only in its infancy in terms of where it is likely to go in order to meet the food demands. Debates on aquaculture often become focused on one species or one application.

There is a multiplicity of things going on around the coast and across Europe. Aquaculture for other species may become dominant. The largest part of feed production in the Mediterranean is sea bream and three or four related species that have developed there over the past 20 years. They are different from the species we have. There is ongoing research into other species. The Deputy is probably familiar with the work on farming cod in Connemara. That work showed that Ireland could produce very fast-growing farmed cod. The problem there is that the rapid expansion of the cod stocks of Norway, which are much larger than anything we have, has kept down the price in the markets at levels that make it uneconomic to develop farmed cod. Biologically it has been proved that the species can be farmed. This is an evolving situation and it is diverse. The debate is focusing on one or two species or one or two projects, but it is wider than that.