Arctic char in County Kerry

Arctic char; the top fish with the red belly is a male. The bottom fish is a female which are generally duller in colour

County Kerry is one of the most important strongholds for Arctic char in Ireland. These pretty trout-like fishes are mysterious in habit are rarely seen. To understand how important the Arctic char are to our heritage we travel back at least 18,000 years in time to the last Ice Age. Imagine a time when almost all of Ireland was covered by ice and snow and woolly mammoths roamed the land. Well the only fish adapted to such harsh climatic conditions are the Arctic char and it is very likely that they spawned in the melt water of glaciers (ice rivers) in County Kerry as they still do today in the Arctic.

In fact County Kerry’s glacial or Ice age history is complicated and it is quite likely that the char survived for longer periods here in loughs and rivers than in other parts of Ireland during this cold period. So the Arctic char are a very ancient fish in County Kerry. But the story doesn’t stop here. Today all Arctic char populations are restricted to their respective loughs (some say landlocked) and have been isolated in them for many thousands of years. Therefore natural selection and other processes of evolution have been at work, so that today no two populations of Arctic char in County Kerry are the same.

This means that every time we loose an Arctic char population it looses something that is special and irreplaceable. Not only that but for as long as Arctic char are kept alive in a lough it means that the water quality of that lough is clean. This is good for those who depend on the lough for drinking water or who like to fish for brown trout or salmon. They also nee clean water and the presence of Arctic char is a water quality assurance certificate.

Coomhsaharan lake. Arctic char lakes need to maintain pristine water quality for the fish to thrive.

Interesting facts about Arctic char in County Kerry

• The Arctic char are a beautiful trout like fish and are probably our most native fish species in Ireland today.
• Sadly these fish are sensitive to pollution and are not good at competing with non-native fish such as pike and roach. Therefore many of Ireland’s populations (at least 30%) have now come extinct due to these human generated problems.
• They were the first fish to colonise Ireland after the last Ice age.
• Kerry is important to the species survival in Ireland.
• There is a big question mark over whether Arctic char remained in County Kerry during the last Ice age as the area may not have been completely covered with ice.
• Scientists are interested in the Arctic char in County Kerry as they may tell us more about evolution and how organisms coped with the various advances and retreats of the ice fields and glaciers last ice age which lasted about 100,000 years!
• Kerry is in the most southern part of the species range and is viewed internationally as important for the long term survival of the species.

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