The Dodo of County Clare – a tragic story of the Arctic char in County Clare

This is a sad tale of the extinctions of Arctic char in County Clare. The story is particularly sad, as these extinctions did not occur millions of years ago but within living memory.

The Arctic char is one of Ireland oldest and most beautiful native fish. Each population of this trout like fish has been isolated in their lakes since the last Ice age, some 18,000 years ago, and are now discreet. In other words Arctic char in one Irish lough look different than those in another, and recent scientific research is showing that these the differences have a genetic basis.

Arctic char are under threat in Ireland and at least 30% of known populations are now extinct. In County Clare the situation is even worse and they may now be all gone. This is their story.

The Dodo of County Clare

Arctic char once occurred in five loughs in County Clare. Two of these populations (in Loughs Gortglas and Cloonsneachta near Kilydysart village) were considered to be very unique, as no other salmonid species (i.e., member of the salmon family) were present prior to stocking of brown trout to these loughs. Loughs, naturally containing only Arctic char, and no other salmonid are a very rare occurrence in most of Western Europe.

Kindrum char

We know that at one time Arctic char were also found in Inchiquin Lough near Corofin, Lickeen Lough near Ennistimon and Finloe Lough near New-Market-on-Fergus.

What were they like

In 1845 a gentleman called O’Gorman wrote about the Arctic char in Inchiquin and Finloe Loughs “The char. We have these beautiful fish gold and silver on Inchiquin lake and another called Finloe….Those that I have seen were from fourteen to sixteen inches in length and the fish pale red and good.” From this account it is clear that these were big Arctic char in the Irish context. Arctic char rarely exceed 12 inches in Irish loughs3. Regrettably these giant char are now extinct from both loughs.

In 1897 John Bickerdyke wrote the following account about his encounters with Arctic char in Gortglas lough, Co. Clare4. “Among other new sensations I had the pleasure of catching my first char in a fine sheet of water known as Gort Glas, which means, in English, Green garden. It was a pretty fish but less red on the belly than other char I have caught elsewhere. I took his photograph…..”.

Photograph originally taken by Bickerdyke 1897 of the now extinct char from Gortglas Lough
There is still a specimen of Arctic char in the London Natural History museum from Lickeen lake taken in 1911.

So what happened to Clare’s Arctic char

As with many parts of Ireland Co. Clare has experienced many changes as our society has developed and this has severely effected the loughs and rivers in the county. The most consistent cause of extinction of Arctic char in Co. Clare has been water pollution which not only can wipe out the Arctic char directly but also benefits pollution tolerant non-native fish species at the expense of the char.

Inchiquin lough has experienced a combination of water pollution and non-native fish introductions such as pike and rudd. In addition the lake water level was lowered severely affecting shallow water production and quite possibly char spawning areas. Inchiquin lough is still facing water quality problems today and mats of algae can be seen on the lough in summer; conditions inimical to the survival of Arctic char in this lough.
In Finloe Lough, it appears that the introduction of non-native fish like pike, rudd and perch were the cause of the extinction of not only the Arctic char but also the native brown trout.

In Lickeen lough there is now a large population of non-native rudd. But the cause of extinction in this deep lough, is water quality problems and in1997 it was classified as strongly eutrophic.

Gortglas lough has also experienced water quality problems, and in 1995 it was classified as strongly eutrophic. Prior to this deterioration in water quality, Clare County Council also began to use the lough as a water supply in the early 1980’s and built a dam between the two loughs. What impact this has had is unknown. Does the water abstraction affect nutrient recycling in the lough? Did the dam prevent adult fish from accessing their spawning grounds or did the abstraction affect the delicate balance between char, brown trout and other aquatic organisms in the lough? This dam may also have effected the population in the upstream lake Cloonsneacta Lough.

Summary

So there you have it, a combination of water pollution, non-native fish introductions, lowering of lake levels and water abstraction have conspired to give County Clare the unenviable notoriety as the “county that has driven all of its “Arctic char populations to extinction”. Just like the Dodo very little information remains of what these fish were like. Just one photograph, a preserved museum specimen and some general accounts are all that we can go on. It is likely that we will never know for sure how these fish attained such large sizes or what their genetic relationships were with Ireland’s other Arctic char populations.

What is most depressing is that, unlike with the extinction of the Dodo, these events didn’t happen hundreds of years ago. Arctic char were still present in Gortglas Lough until atleast 1982 and in Lickeen Lough, possibly until 1990. Not so long ago really and well within living memory. There is a slim chance that they could still occur in Cloonsneachta but fishery surveys have failed to find any. What is beyond doubt is that they now appear to be gone from all of the other loughs.

The future

The water quality conditions of some of these loughs is still in a poor state and would no longer support Arctic char even if they were reintroduced. Yet this is the same water used for public water supply in many areas. Surely the presence of such a pollution sensitive species would be a desirable thing as it would act as a quality assurance for clean water.

Although the unique genetic constitution of County Clare’s Arctic char variety is probably lost forever, this should be no reason to ignore the degraded state of these lakes. It would still be worth restoring these former Arctic char loughs to their original “good ecological condition” as required under the new EU Water Framework Directive, if nothing else but from a human health, angling and tourism perspective. So why not clean up these lakes and bring back the Arctic char to County Clare?

A dodo