Clíona Mhic

Good morning, Clare.

Nice to talk to you.

Thank you.

They are absolutely extraordinary and they're an existential threat to the industry, to be honest.

Dungarvan is one of the major oyster growing bays in Ireland.

We have...

We have three or four big operators and another half a dozen or so smaller operators in the bay.

And this affected the whole lot.

Everybody in the bay was equally affected.

So it really is.

We lost around 70 percent of our fully grown stock.

And just to explain, oysters spend about three years coming to maturity.

So you're carrying the juveniles, the babies, the half-grown and the adult oysters at any given time.

So we lost about 70% of the full-grown oysters and around 60% or so of the half-grown as well.

No, Clare, we can't get insurance.

It's, I suppose it's too risky a business.

You know, you're growing, you're farming animals really, but farming them in the sea.

And to answer your question, how we're coping, I mean, barely really is the answer.

Some people are worse affected than others.

Some people had a certain amount of reserves, but I mean,