Local Authority Waters Programme and Mayo County Council unveil artwork at Lough Mask in Mayo during

Local Authority Waters Programme and Mayo County Council unveil artwork at Lough Mask in Mayo during Biodiversity Week

Date: 24-05-2024

The Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) in collaboration with Mayo County Council launched an Arctic Char mosaic art piece by artist Annaliese Brown along with a new Mayo Blue Dots booklet and film.

The launch took place at the beginning of national Biodiversity Week at Lough Mask on Saturday, 18^th of May 2024. LAWPRO is a national shared service working on behalf of the 31 local authorities in Ireland coordinating efforts to achieve good or high water quality across the country.

Lough Mask is one of Ireland’s Blue Dots and also one of the remaining places that the native and rare Arctic Char remains. Blue Dots are high status objective waterbodies and there are 48 of these in County Mayo. When achieving this target, they have the highest ecological quality of all our waters and often a greater diversity of species that are sensitive to pollution.

Speaking after the launch, Dr Bernadette White, Blue Dot Catchments Programme Manager at LAWPRO said: “We are very happy to have launched the Mayo Blue Dots mosaic, booklet and film to celebrate Mayo’s high-status objective waters. Lough Mask is iconic for Arctic Char and has one of the few populations left in Ireland of these species that date back to glacial times. It is important to mark these special waters that exist in Ireland and the diverse biodiversity they host.”

The mosaic was unveiled at 11am at the Robert Shaw Memorial at Lough Mask by Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council Cllr Michael Loftus. The film and booklet were launched thereafter in Tourmakeady Community Centre (~ 12 noon) with copies of the booklet available for attendees.  The film will be available to view online in the coming weeks. Dr Fran Igoe of LAWPRO gave a keynote address on the rare species Arctic Char and it’s uniqueness and special association with Lough Mask.

For further information on the event please email Éanna Hyland, Community Water Officer for Mayo: ehyland@lawaters.ie.