{"id":1171863,"date":"2026-08-27T07:20:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1171863\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:20:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:20:42","slug":"demon-shrimp-and-parasites-among-global-invasive-species-threats-examined-in-belfast-this-week-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1171863\/","title":{"rendered":"Demon shrimp and parasites among global invasive species threats examined in Belfast this week \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demon shrimp, invasive salmon and zebra mussels are among the current and future non-native threats to Northern Ireland\u2019s waters<\/a> being discussed as part of an international conference in Belfast<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

The 24th International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species (ICAIS) has gathered global experts at Queen\u2019s University Belfast (QUB)<\/a> from August 23 to August 28, marking the first time the event has been held in the city. <\/p>\n

The week-long event will include a range of discussions which aim to build on \u201ccutting-edge research\u201d and best management practices, which could also help inform how freshwater invasive species are dealt with in the north. <\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>Vigilance urged as \u2018highly invasive\u2019 mussel discovered for first time in NI<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Former<\/a>\"High<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish News, Dr Ross Cuthbert from QUB\u2019s school of biological sciences, said that the conference was significant both \u201cinternationally and locally\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Ross Cuthbert is a lecturer at QUB’s school of biological sciences and one of the chairs of this week’s conference PICTURE: QUB <\/p>\n

\u201cIt really helps to boost the reputation of the university but also help to address our local issues, so environments like Lough Neagh which have been severely affected by harmful algal blooms recently \u2013 invasions have a role to play there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve seen that also in other parts of the world, so we can learn from those international perspectives and hopefully address some of our local issues through this conference as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Cuthbert said that invasive species cost \u201cbillions to these islands\u201d through losses in agriculture, forestry, on land and in water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effects are quite substantial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvasions by the zebra mussel are particularly noteworthy in the Lough Neagh context but there\u2019s lots of other invasives that have caused issues, such as invasive waterweeds which clog waterways and affect recreation and angling, as well as invasive parasites that may threaten fish populations in the future. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe demon shrimp was first identified in Irish waters in September 2025 PICTURE: CANAL & RIVER TRUST <\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge really in aquatic systems is management because we often don\u2019t know when an invasion is there until it\u2019s very abundant, at which point it\u2019s very difficult to manage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Cuthbert added that climate change and the spread of invasive species \u201cvery much feed into each other\u201d, meaning that species from the likes of the Azov and Caspian Sea regions are \u201cmore primed to succeed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a particular region that\u2019s had quite a lot of notorious invasions in Ireland and other parts of Europe recently, including things like the zebra mussel which is in Lough Neagh, the quagga mussel which recently arrived on the island of Ireland as well as the so-called \u2018demon shrimp\u2019 which has been invading Irish waters and recently detected as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not yet in Northern Ireland, but it is rapidly spreading.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can certainly look at what\u2019s happening elsewhere to understand what could be coming in the future and climate change fuels that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demon shrimp, invasive salmon and zebra mussels are among the current and future non-native threats to Northern Ireland\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1171864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[46928,728,17081,99538,1144,29728,16,15],"class_list":["post-1171863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-conference","tag-environment","tag-invasive-species","tag-lough-neagh","tag-northern-ireland","tag-queen-s-university","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117166268380376101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1171863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1171864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1171863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1171863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1171863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}