Lough Corrib and Lough Carra fish stock surveys
Inland Fisheries Ireland intends to carry out a fish stock survey on Lough Corrib and Lough Carra to assess the current status of the fish populations in the lakes. The Lough Corrib survey will take place from the 18th June to 6th July 2018 and will involve netting of approximately 150 sites throughout the lake. The Lough Carra survey is scheduled to take place from the 9th to 13th July 2018 and will involve netting of approximately 53 sites throughout the lake. The surveys will involve Inland Fisheries Ireland staff from IFI Galway and research staff from IFI’s Citywest Headquarters. The Lough Corrib survey will include a total of three survey boat crews, while there will be two survey crews on Lough Carra.
The surveys are a joint survey between IFI’s national WFD monitoring programme, brown trout, coarse fish and pike research programmes. A new netting method has been developed to incorporate all the above programmes and fulfil each programme’s requirements in one survey. These lakes will now be surveyed once every three to five years. This new method combines European standard monofilament multi-mesh survey gill nets, fyke nets and four-panel large-mesh multifilament braided survey gill nets. The surveys will provide a range of information on the fish stocks in the lakes, e.g. size distributions of fish captured, age and growth information for all species, diet of selected species, catch per unit effort (CPUEs) for each fish species, etc. Samples for genetic analyses of brown trout from Lough Corrib will also be taken.
The survey crews will be very visible on the lakes. All nets will be marked with distinctive orange buoys labelled ‘IFI Survey’. All anglers and other lake users are asked to be vigilant if out and about on the lake over the next few weeks so as to avoid snagging in the nets or float ropes. Lake users should also be aware that some survey nets will be floating on the surface of the lake. These will be clearly marked with multiple buoys.
Inland Fisheries Ireland’s biosecurity protocols will be strictly adhered to. A standard operating procedure was compiled by IFI for biosecurity purposes and is followed by staff in IFI when moving between water bodies.