In the ‘Proteus’ episode of Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, set on Sandymount Strand, Stephen closes his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells.

The mudflats are still filled with inter-tidal bivalves. Razorfish, cockles and mussels are all exposed when the tide is out and were eaten in former times. Perhaps the fate of the entire O’Connor family, when James the father and his wife and four daughters all died of mussel poisoning, was surely one of the reasons the Irish found smaller shellfish unpalatable for much of the last century.

This was over 100 years ago, and it is hoped with all the initiatives being implemented to clean up the water in Dublin Bay, a day will come when Dublin shellfish will be fit for human consumption.

The Shellfish Water Directive is a EU directive which aims to improve and protect the quality of the brackish and coastal waters where the shellfish live, and to help improve the quality of the edible shellfish products.

The Shellfish Waters Directive was signed into Irish law by the Quality of Waters Regulations 1994. Designated Shellfish waters are subject to a quality monitoring programme in which samples are tested against a series of parameters including temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and suspended solids.

Although there are no designated Shellfish Waters in the Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study (GDSDS) Area, the Nanny Estuary, which lies just north of the GDSDS, is a designated Shellfish water area. It is interesting that recently shellfish have been harvested from the Portmarnock coast, although this area has not yet achieved Shellfish water designation.

Progress is being made, and monitored. In June 2007 the Irish Government was found guilty by the European Court of Justice of failing to introduce proper pollution control programmes and failing to introduce proper laws to protect shellfish areas around the coast.

A complaint by the Irish Shellfish Association led to the European Commission taking the action. The court also found that Ireland had failed to designate enough shellfish areas for protection. The Irish Shellfish Industry was valued at €63 million per annum, with exports going all over the globe.

The abundance of empty cockle, razorfish and mussel shells on Sandymount Strand is a sure sign of a large, thriving population present. The sooner the area earns its Shellfish Water status the better. We can then begin to harvest and enjoy this valuable resource.