Warner Bros considers move to Titanic town

By Stephen McKinley

Warner Brothers, the US entertainment giant, is eyeing a possible studio development in Belfast.

Studio executives conducting an appraisal of the facilities and possible investment opportunities have visited the new Titanic Quarter business development zone.

Fred Olsen Energy, parent company of Harland and Wolff, is the landlord of the 100-acre site, which runs alongside the River Lagan.

Warner Brothers wants to build a hi-tech quarter in Belfast, attracting multimedia, informatics and telecoms firms to set up in Northern Ireland.

The Titanic Quarter zone will be the main site for the Northern Ireland Science Park, expected to create up to 3,000 jobs around the province. Disney has also been approached as a possible contender.

Gas pipeline delay

The proposed new gas pipeline between Belfast and Derry has been put on hold because government ministers cannot agree on the capital costs, industry sources have said.

Developers Bord Gas and the US-based company Questar have yet to submit final costs and the route that the pipeline would take.

The Northern Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment cannot take any further decisions until these figures have been sent in.

But it is understood that the delay is temporary, and that the department is in daily contact with the joint developers.

The pipeline is also a major factor in the building of a _150 million (c. $160 million) power station in Derry.

The gas and electricity industry regulator, Douglas McIldoon told the Irish Times that he is confident he will be in a position to issue the license to build the pipeline within “a matter of weeks”.

“The power station will be the main customer for the pipeline, but the gas pipeline also needs the power station to provide capacity contracts as the rationale for investors,” he said.

“The question of public funding for this project is obviously an important one because the project sponsors will have to decide if they would be prepared to go ahead without a grant if public funding is not available.”

Eel stocks fall

Global warming and changes in the Gulf Stream may be one of the main factors behind a serious decline in Irish eel stocks, the head of a UCG research team said.

During over 20 years of studying the eels, a team led by Dr Kieran McCarthy of the zoology department in Galway University has found stocks have been steadily dropping.

There has been a huge decline in eels both entering and leaving the Shannon.

The number of juvenile eels trapped for stocking has dropped from a peak of seven tonnes in 1979 to an average of less than half a tonne in the last decade.

“This drop is paralleled throughout Europe, with the decline being more pronounced as you move north. There is now no run of elvers (young eels) into the Baltic Sea,” McCarthy said.

Over-fishing, the arrival of three Japanese eel parasites in Ireland and pollution are other reasons being blamed for the collapse in stocks. But McCarthy believes changes in oceanic currents are a major factor.

Because of their life history and migrations, eels are an indicator of what might be happening and the decline could be giving an early warning about changes caused by global warming.

McCarthy said even small shifts in major ocean circulations like the Gulf Stream would be very severe for Ireland.

“We think of global warming in terms of growing grapes in our back garden or having a sun tan all year round.

“But the predictions for Ireland are not like that at all. There would be very unpleasant weather conditions and all kinds of unexpected changes in flora and fauna,” he said.