Ken Whelan

So a trip along the seashore,

And we were blessed because when the ice left us, what we think happened was that there were areas that were colonised.

can just open your eyes in terms of the wealth of marine life that you have in Sandymount.

So we started to find what we called regional tags.

You know, you don't have to go to the Azores to see this stuff.

So we found regional genetic similarities and they were really strong.

Whether you go to Sandymount or Dun Laoghaire or north up into Carlingford, all these creatures are there to be found.

So you could identify the south coast of Ireland, the west coast of Norway, the west coast of Scotland.

And those regional tags have really stood the test of time.

But within that, when we look at individual rivers where we've lots of samples, we can identify the individual rivers by the genetics.

So they have separated out and it's really important that they have those homes to go to.

Ah, we're back to Greenland again.

No, I think that's the interesting part because generally there's about 8 or 10% of strays.

And when you think about it, that is a fantastic safety mechanism.

Needed.

And you see now where in the context, for example, through the Atlantic Salmon Trust that I do a bit of work for, we funded some very good research on the Mersey.

identifying the different fish that are beginning to recolonise the Mersey can you imagine recolonising the Mersey but still the strays are now going in there have been going in there for 10, 12, 15 years and we may very well see a new form of fish and this is going to take time but at the same time the actual ability to do that is there

And people often say, oh, salmon's going to die out.

No way the salmon's going to die out.

It's going to find different places to live.