Fish Stock Survey of Ardderry Lough, August 2022
Ardderry Lough is the second lake on the Screebe system in Co. Galway (Plate 1.1, Figure 1.1). The lake is located adjacent to Maam Cross and to the south of the N59 Galway to Clifden road at an altitude of 37m a.s.l. (Figure 1.1). The underlying geology is categorised as siliceous. The lake has a surface area of 81.1ha, a mean depth of >4m and a maximum depth of 12m. The lake is classified as typology class 4 (as designated by the EPA for the Water Framework Directive), i.e., deep (>4m), greater than 50ha and low alkalinity (<20mg/l CaCO3).
The lake has been surveyed on five occasions since 2007 (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019) (Kelly and Connor, 2007 and Kelly et al., 2011, 2014, and 2017, Corcoran et al., 2020). These surveys have
revealed a change in the fish community in the lake. While perch have been the dominant species across all surveys Arctic char, a rare endemic species, has been not been recorded since 2010.
This report summarises the results of the 2022 fish stock survey carried out on the lake using Inland Fisheries Ireland’s fish in lakes monitoring protocol. The protocol is WFD compliant and also provides insight into fish stock status in the lake.
Topics: Lake Surveys 2022 , Ardderry Lough |