Arctic Char, Prehistoric Life in our Lakes

Public lecture

A public lecture on the history of Arctic char in County Wicklow, with recent fish data from surveys of Glendalough upper lough, Lough Dan and Lough Tay by the Irish Char Conservation Group.

Dr. Fran Igoe, Irish Char Conservation Group

History of Arctic char in County Wicklow

It is known from the work of one of Ireland’s best known fisheries scientists, Dr. Arthur Went, that Arctic char were present in at least three loughs in County Wicklow, and those in Lough Dan and Tay (Luggala) were given separate taxonomic status by the earlier taxonomist Tate Regan. They were described as a separate species Salvelinus obtusus or “the blunt nosed char” on account of their stubby nose compared with other specimens he examined throughout the country. So lets take a look at each lough, beginning with Glendalough, then Lough Tay and finally with Lough Dan.

Read the full article; pdf file.