Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

173 Chapter 7: Nature Figure 7.16  (top) The Shannon River system with Lough Ree and Lough Derg enlarged. Dots show the presence (black) and absence (white) of the invasive quagga mussel (first discovered in Ireland in July 2021) during surveys in 2021 and 2022. The photographs (bottom left) show three quagga mussels and (bottom right) thousands of quagga mussels established on the hull of a boat on the Shannon system – a key dispersal mechanism of this species Source: Map reproduced from Flynn et al. , 2023 Ireland has a long list of invasive non-native species (e.g. zebra mussel, quagga mussel, Asian clam, grey squirrel, Alpine newt, rhododendron, Chinese mitten crab (Figure 7.17) and Pacific oyster), which have all displaced, to varying degrees, naturally occurring species across Ireland, resulting in biodiversity loss and damaged ecosystems.