Inland Fisheries Ireland National Research Survey Programme Sampling Fish in Rivers 2016 Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24 CITATION: Kelly, F.L., Matson, R., Delanty, K., Connor, L., O’Briain, R., Gordon, P., Corcoran, W., McLoone, P., Connor, L., Coyne, J., Morrissey, E., Cierpal, D., Rocks, K., Buckley, S., Kelly, K., McWeeney, D. and Puttharee, D. (2017) Sampling Fish in Rivers 2016. National Research Survey Programme. Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24, Ireland. Cover photo: NRSP team electric-fishing © Inland Fisheries Ireland 2017 © Inland Fisheries Ireland 2017 2 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................ 5 PROJECT STAFF ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Monitoring fish at Water Framework Directive surveillance monitoring sites. .................... 2 1.2 Sampling method intercalibration ................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Catchment wide surveys.................................................................................................................... 2 2. STUDY AREA ..................................................................................................................................... 2 3. METHODS .......................................................................................................................................... 3 3.1 Fish sampling ..................................................................................................................................... 3 3.1.1 Area delineated electric-fishing (ADEF) .................................................................................. 3 3.1.2 Ten-minute electric-fishing (TEF) ............................................................................................ 3 3.1.3 Systematic point abundance sampling (sPASE) (Boom boat electrofishing) ........................ 4 3.2 Fish Handling ..................................................................................................................................... 4 3.3 Data analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 4 3.4 Age and growth of fish ...................................................................................................................... 4 3.5 Quality Assurance .............................................................................................................................. 5 3.6 Biosecurity and decontamination procedures ................................................................................. 5 3.7 Fish status ........................................................................................................................................... 5 4. RESULTS............................................................................................................................................. 7 4.1 Eastern River Basin District (ERBD) .............................................................................................. 7 4.1.1 Avoca Catchment ....................................................................................................................... 8 4.1.2 River Boyne Catchment ........................................................................................................... 10 4.1.3 River Dodder ............................................................................................................................ 15 4.1.4 Mayne and Sluice Rivers ......................................................................................................... 19 4.1.5 Nanny River (Meath) ............................................................................................................... 21 4.2 Neagh Bann International River Basin District (NBIRBD) ......................................................... 23 4.2.1 White River (Louth) ................................................................................................................. 24 4.3 South Eastern River Basin District (SERBD) .............................................................................. 28 4.3.1 River Nore ................................................................................................................................. 29 4.3.2 Owenavorragh River................................................................................................................ 34 4.3.3 Slaney River Catchment .......................................................................................................... 37 4.3.4 River Suir Catchment .............................................................................................................. 40 4.4 Shannon International River Basin District (ShIRBD) ................................................................ 59 4.4.1 Caher River ............................................................................................................................... 60 4.4.2 River Shannon .......................................................................................................................... 62 1 4.4.3 River Suck ................................................................................................................................. 86 4.4.4 Tullamore River ....................................................................................................................... 91 4.4.5 Maigue River ............................................................................................................................ 93 4.5 North West International River Basin District (NWIRBD) ........................................................ 96 4.5.1 River Erne catchment .............................................................................................................. 97 4.5.2 Eany Water ............................................................................................................................. 105 4.6 Western River Basin District (WRBD) ........................................................................................ 107 4.1.1 Corrib catchment ............................................................................................................. 108 4.6.2 River Moy Catchment ............................................................................................................ 115 4.6.3 Owendalluleegh River ............................................................................................................ 121 4.6.4 Community structure and distribution ................................................................................ 123 4.6.5 Age and growth ...................................................................................................................... 135 5. ECOLOGICAL STATUS ............................................................................................................... 138 6. SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 144 7. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 144 APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 146 APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 151 APPENDIX 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 156 APPENDIX 4 ............................................................................................................................................ 157 APPENDIX 5 ............................................................................................................................................ 161 APPENDIX 6 ............................................................................................................................................ 162 APPENDIX 7 ............................................................................................................................................ 163 APPENDIX 8 ............................................................................................................................................ 164 APPENDIX 9 ............................................................................................................................................ 165 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Inland Fisheries Ireland’s National Research Survey Programme - Lakes and Rivers team (NRSP-L&R) was set up in 2015 as part of a restructuring exercise within the Research and Development Division. In 2016 the National Coarse Fish and Pike (NRSP-NCFP) remit was added to the team. The main functions of the team are to provide