The Freshwater Detective Is Here

Just to prove that, hey, it is actually impossible to keep up with absolutely everything that goes on around here, we stumbled across the bould Ben Whelan on our daily walk yesterday.

Sitting pretty down at the Glebe, with his nets, his sample trays and his dirty big table, turns out Ben was conducting a Water Detective course.

And we never heard a feckin’ word about it.

Then again, maybe we did, and it just got lost in GG’s ever-bulging mailbox.

One-day classes running from now until the spring of 2021, here’s the lowdown…

This one day introductory course will give participants an understanding of the role which rivers, streams and loughs play in the functioning of Ireland’s freshwater ecosystems.

Participants will gain a basic knowledge of life in a range of aquatic water bodies. They will discover how to identify the more common plants and animals, which may act as indicators of the health of the stream. The course will also introduce participants to the threats faced by these water courses, not alone from the more common impacts of land drainage and pollution but also the impacts which invasive fish, invertebrate and plant species can have on the functioning of Wicklow’s rivers streams and loughs.

This introductory course will consist of an evening online (6.30pm to 9pm + Q&A) and a half-day field session from 10am to 1pm or 2pm to 5pm. The field component of the course will include training on how to carry out a river survey, the collection and identification of key indicator invertebrate and plant species, ensuring connectivity within catchments and the importance of removing barriers to fish migration.

Got that. Upcoming courses include Tinahely on September 11th and 12th and Enniskerry on October 2nd and 3rd. More info here, or you can email Ken on [email protected].