Good news for the Arctic char in Kerry

A pair of Coomasaharn Lake char. Things are looking good for this years fry.

Researchers studying the early life history of one of Kerry’s most important wildlife species have confirmed that the fish have successfully hatched from their spawning beds in Coomasaharn Lake, Co. Kerry. Once thought to have been a separate species and called Salvelinus fimbriatus, the Arctic char in Coomasaharn lake have spawned and hatched successfully this year said Dr. Fran Igoe of the Irish Char Conservation Group. Dr. Igoe was in Killarney to give a public lecture on Kerry’s native fish life and took the opportunity to complete survey the Irish Char Conservation Group had started 2004.

"Until last December nobody knew where the Arctic char spawned in the lake and little is known about their early life history in Ireland. Now we know where they spawn, their spawning requirements and importantly that they spawned successfully" he said.

Coomasaharn Lake is of great value to Ireland's natural heritage because of its unique char.

The Coomasaharn char are notable as they differ from other members of the species by the fact that they have completely differently shaped heads and a greater number of filtering structures in their gills. They are also a dwarf form which some scientists believe are related to Siberian char.

The genetic work by Dr. Paolo Prodöhl in Queens University, literally carried out last week has shown that they are different to Arctic char in other populations in lakes examined from Co. Donegal. And trials by Dr. Niall Ruane of University College Cork is showing that they are growing and behaving differently than Arctic char from nearby Caragh Lake, which is outside of Killorglin, under controlled experimental conditions.

Dr. Fran Igoe does a bit of research on the lake.

This is all turning out to be very exciting as we already knew from work done by International Arctic char scientist Dr. Johan Hammar who examined their internal parasites that they were different. The resent research results coming in will clearly increase their conservation importance and the need for the Irish state to give Arctic char more formal recognition when considering our native wildlife. The best part is that the unique form of Arctic char are still surviving and recruiting in Coomasaharn lake whereas in many other parts of Ireland Arctic char are becoming extinct.