Living The Wildlife

Mulkear River (4x3)

Air date: Mar 22, 2011

Colin witnesses one of the great natural events to happen in Ireland Colin Stafford-Johnson is in Annacotty Co. Limerick and he is about to witness one of the great natural events to happen in Ireland. Sea Lampreys are on their way from the Atlantic to build nests for the breeding season. Lampreys are amazing pre-historic animals who have an extraordinary sucker for a mouth and they use this to drag rocks around the riverbed until they are satisfied with their arrangement. But the lampreys have a problem. A man made problem. Annacotty Weir is preventing the sea lampreys from getting upriver to their traditional spawning territories. This means that a good proportion of our sea lamprey population is concentrated in one small area of the river. Colin has heard about a wonderful environmental project to remove this obstacle and restore and improve habitat for not only the sea lamprey but also the otter and salmon. He is meeting up with Ruairi O’Conchuir who manages the Mulkear LIFE project to learn more about the work that they plan to do over the next four years.