Scientists meeting in Ennis hear about the growing number of threats to native marine life.
There are many manrine species invading Irish shores. This is part of a wider issue that is seeing species move to parts of the world they have not been seen in before.
There are sea squirts from Korea and crabs from Japan and this is a clam which made its way thousands of miles across the Atlantic and threatens to damage Irish shellfish.
Three hundred scientists from thirty two countries attending a conference in Ennis share and discuss the impacts on humans directly and indirectly from invasive marine life.
Dan Minchin gives the example of zebra mussels and the injury they have caused to people swimming in waters they have entered.
Sometimes they think they are being cut by glass but they are not.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 20 September 2004. The reporter is Tom MacSweeney.
