Untitled Document
| Government Dept. | Jan | Feb | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | ||
| DCAL I.F. | ||||||||||||||
| Course Fish | Pike | Roach | Bream | |||||||||||
| Game Fish | Trout | Salmon | ||||||||||||
| Salmon/Smolts | Smolts | Salmon | Salmon | Salmon | Salmon | Salmon | Spawning | Spawning | ||||||
| Eels | ||||||||||||||
| NIEA | ||||||||||||||
| Birds | Wildfowl | Bird Nesting | Wildfowl | Wildfowl | ||||||||||
| Invertebrates | ||||||||||||||
| Waterways Ireland | ||||||||||||||
| DARD | ||||||||||||||
| Farming | Farming Access | |||||||||||||
| Rivers Agency | ||||||||||||||
| Range 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Water level Control | Requirement to keep lough within legal limits all year. | |||||||||||||
| Range 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Low level Protection | "-Indicates low level requirement for farmers to graze" | |||||||||||||
| "-indicates minmum level to support watercraft" | ||||||||||||||
| "-Indicates protection required for aquatic Invertebrates" | ||||||||||||||
| Range 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Normal Range | "-Indicates median levels to protect nesting birds" | |||||||||||||
| Range 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Stable Levels | "-Indicates stable water levels (i.e. fish spawning)" | |||||||||||||
| Range 4 | ||||||||||||||
| Short period specific | "-Higher level for short specific period to support Trout and Salmon running rivers(WFD)European: Vurnerable(Red List)" | |||||||||||||
| "-Indicates sporadic higher levels required for wildfowl feeding(natural winter flooding)" | ||||||||||||||
| "-Full moon water flow requirements of strong flow & "dam spill" for running smolt & salmon(WFD)European: Vurnerable(Red List)" | ||||||||||||||
| "-Indicates support for eels returning and elvers entering system" | ||||||||||||||
| Range 0 | ||||||||||||||
| This indicates the primary task of Rivers Agency/ESB to attempt to keep within the legal limts agreed on the lough when the dam was built. | ||||||||||||||
| Range 1 | ||||||||||||||
| This range indicates the lower level extremes that will increase difficulties for the Flora/Fauna and Community participation. | ||||||||||||||
| Lough Erne contains many endangered Invertebrate Species that need protection.(e.g. Mayflys(Ephemeroptera) which have endangered species in lough erne.) | ||||||||||||||
| Range 2 | ||||||||||||||
| This is a requirement to protect predator access to bird nesting & flooding of nest sites. | ||||||||||||||
| Range 3 | ||||||||||||||
| This comes about as once fish spawn the eggs need to be kept wet. This has important economic benefits to tourism/fishing/environment and is included in WFD. | ||||||||||||||
| Range 4 | ||||||||||||||
| Indicates short periods that require specific goals. The Salmonid migration is a legal requirement covered in WFD and we must support that activity. | ||||||||||||||
| It is noted that excesses in weather will disrupt the best laid plans and require appropiate attention. | ||||||||||||||
| However the current low levels in winter and high levels in summer with sometimes negative support for salmonids invite european legal issues from the WFD and Red List species. | ||||||||||||||
| Erne Rivers Trust Perspective | ||||||||||||||
| From Erne Rivers Trust perspective we would like the lough to try and keep to a fixed stable level for most of the year. | ||||||||||||||
| Our suggestion at this stage is aim somewhere in the middle of the defined range keeping the stones on shores 75% covered. | ||||||||||||||
| This will provide a healthy biodiverse invertebrate habitat with some shore protection from the erosion of waves and boat wash by the higher stones and banks. | ||||||||||||||
| As the evapouration rate slows with colder weather we would expect to see a little more variation in levels during the winter. | ||||||||||||||
| Until further study invertebrate work is carried out we would ask that the stone shores are not dried out as this directly affects endangered invertebrate species. | ||||||||||||||
| We can only emphasize the need for montoring and research on the relationship of levels to that of the Flora and Fauna. | ||||||||||||||
| The unique situation of Lough Erne gives us the ability to use the flow controls to enhance the major fishing competitions. | ||||||||||||||
| By manufacturing flow for the "Classic" this will favour course fishing while reducing flow for the major predator competition should increase catches. | ||||||||||||||
| A number of the events are related more to moon phases and temperature rather than months of the year and this will change dates annually. | ||||||||||||||