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ENERGY INTERNATIONAL
February/March 2012 www.esb.ie/em
Sustainability winners
Bright lights against the winter skies of Ireland
LRP celebrates family win
SHANE FINN is pictured in DCU, along with his father Seamus from Lough Ree Power Station, on Saturday 5th November 2011 after Shane won a silver medal in the Irish junior science olympiad.
To qualify, students had to have a minimum of six As in Higher Level papers in the Junior Cert, including As in science and maths, and be under 16 on the 1st of January this year.
All participants received a certificate, with the top three pupils receiving gold medals, the next three silver and the next three bronze.
The gold and silver medal winners are invited to represent Ireland at the 2011 International Junior Science Olympiad which was held in Durban, South Africa in early December. The bronze medal winners are on the reserve list.
Before departing for Durban on Wednesday November 30th, the team attended an intensive, four-day residential programme in Dublin City University, organised by Ir JSO principal scientist and pedagogical leader Dr Paraic James of DCU. The team was also accompanied to Durban by Ir JSO director and delegation leader Dr Michael A Cotter. The delegation arrived in Durban on December 1 and arrived back in Dublin on December 12.
Increase in salmon stocks at ESB Hatcheries
THE RETURN of adult Atlantic salmon to the three ESB-operated salmon hatcheries showed some encouraging signs of increased stocks in 2011. This follows mixed results over the previous two years, due mainly to extreme weather conditions in 2009 and 2010. On the River Shannon, the automatic fish counters at Ardnacrusha and Parteen recorded a large increase in the number of wild fish ascending the fish lifts, with more than 2,000 salmon passing upstream of the dams for the first time in over two decades. Elsewhere, the returns to the River Lee and River Erne were greater than those of recent years.
At Parteen Salmon Hatchery, the return of over 1,000 hatchery fish provided adequate stock to carry out the River Shannon breeding programme. Starting in early December and continuing through the New Year, more than one million eggs were incubated in the hatchery by ESB Fisheries staff. Once hatching occurs from early March onwards, more than 200,000 fry will be reared within the hatchery with any excess fish planted out by fisheries staff in upper tributaries of the Shannon to boost the future stock of salmon returning there.
In addition to normal hatchery activities, a new filtering system has been installed at Parteen. This provides water of much improved quality to the hatching eggs and improves survival to the fry stage. As part of the EU funded Atlantic Aquatic Resource Conservation (AARC) programme, begun in 2010, a large proportion of 2010 and 2011 wild fish were genetically sampled as they passed upstream, as were all hatchery fish used in the Parteen breeding programme. The initial results from this programme, being carried out in partnership by University College Cork (UCC) and Inland Fisheries Ireland, show encouraging signs with high survival rates detected during surveys carried out in August 2010 upon rivers into which juvenile fish were released. It is hoped that this experiment will give information on the effectiveness of hatchery restocking and the role of hatcheries in improving salmon stocks. In addition, the sampling may also indicate what adjustments need to be made to the habitat in order to maximise juvenile salmon output. The head of the AARC project, Dr Philip McGinnity of UCC, recently complimented ESB staff on their significant and vital contribution to the programme.
On the River Erne, at Ballyshannon, salmon returns compared favourably with previous years, with more than 700,000 eggs available for rearing and planting out on the Erne system. Station spillage from Cathaleen’s Fall station from mid-November signalled the end of fish passing upstream, concluding encouraging overall returns for 2011 with nearly 1,500 wild adult salmon ascending the Lower Erne.
On the River Lee, at Carrigadrohid, salmon returns did not match the improvements seen on the River Shannon. Nevertheless, an adequate number of hatchery fish returning ensures that there will be more than enough stock available to carry out the breeding programme and provide the target number of smolt releases in 2013 of 60,000.
Commenting on the adult salmon returns, ESB Fisheries biologist Dr Denis Doherty said a number of factors contributed to the favourable returns. “The removal of the drift nets off the Irish coast in 2005 was designed to improve the number of returning salmon to Irish rivers and the increase in numbers was always expected to be gradual over a number of years,” he said.
“The past two seasons have been difficult for salmon, due to the unexpected extreme weather conditions and the return to our more normal maritime climate conditions gives a truer picture of the health of the salmon stocks. The recent improvements made to the Ardnacrusha Borland fish lift proved to be a major boost to fish passage. At Parteen Regulating Weir, water discharge through the fish pass was monitored daily and adjusted to suit the levels of the river above the weir. All these factors contributed to the good results, but a long-term view must be taken of results. We will be in a better position after a full decade of removal of drift nets to assess if we are achieving our goal of restoring salmon numbers to sustainable levels in our rivers.”
ESB Fisheries Manager Noel Greally paid tribute to the Ardnacrusha staff for the quality of the refurbishment work on the fish lift which has clearly had a significant impact on returns to the catchment.
