Some 30 swimmers took to the waters of Larne Lough on Saturday (22 April) in protest over plans to store half a billion cubic metres of natural gas under its bed, according to BBC News.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Northern Ireland’s main conservation groups have come out against the plan to develop the gas storage caverns underneath Larne Lough on environmental grounds.
The protest followed a similar action earlier this month called ‘Boots on the Beach’, in which 200 people marched along Brown’s Bay beach in Islandmagee in opposition to the gas caverns.
Campaigners, who have been raising funds for a judicial review due to begin early next month, fear that the “hyper-saline” water that would be released by carving out the salt caverns beneath the lock would threaten vulnerable marine wildlife and even create a “dead zone”.
It’s also feared that the project would impact key records collected by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group used to determine the status of cetaceans in Irish waters.
However, the firm behind the project — which is owned by Harland & Wolff, formerly InfraStrata — counters that it would create hundreds of jobs in the area and bring “significant economic and social benefits” to the region.
BBC News has more on the story HERE.
