Ballintra – another impassable ESB dam
This is Ballintra Gates at the outfall of Lough Allen, in the upper River Shannon. This dam has a fish pass that does not work. This is another ESB dam…
Tag: river shannon
Did you know that salmon briefly returned to the upper River Shannon in 1994?
We visited the beautiful Rivers Boyle and Feorish in the upper River Shannon catchment in August 2014 to look for juvenile salmon. We found that there was a good stock…
The return of the eel
The European eel is currently staging a remarkable comeback, with record numbers of juvenile eels arriving to the European coast from the Sargasso Sea for the third consecutive year. The…
River Brosna Special Area of Study 2014
Introduction The River Brosna has a catchment area of 1,273km2 and is the 3rd largest tributary of the River Shannon. It rises in Lough Owel north of Mullingar and flows through Mullingar into…
A sustainable compensation flow is needed for the Old River Shannon
One of the key environmental issues on hydroelectric schemes with diverted river stretches, such as the lower River Shannon, is that discharges are at a consistent uniform low flow for…
The SEG approach needs to be employed on the River Shannon
The Sustainable Eel Group (SEG) have just published their 2013 newsletter and it makes very interesting reading. The SEG is a Europe wide conservation and science led organisation working to…
Is angling a threat to salmon recovery on the Shannon?
The Lower River Shannon is currently managed as a ‘catch and release’ river, where only hatchery fish can be retained. However, there is currently a significant possibility that the salmon…
The failure of the Ardnacrusha fish-lift
The fish pass at Ardnacrusha is a Borland type vertical fish-lift. The bottom chamber and the vertical shaft are built in an area which was left for a 6th turbine…
