Newport Catchment Facilities
Newport Catchment Facilities Overview
The Newport facilities comprise of a laboratory, administration block, freshwater hatchery, fish rearing facilities, fish census trapping stations, a salmonid angling fishery and a comprehensively monitored freshwater lake and river catchment.
Traps
The fish trapping facilities have been in operation since 1958, with a full record of all fish movements upstream and downstream since 1970. They are known locally as the “Salmon Leap” and the “Mill Race”.
Data Buoys
We maintain two Automatic Water Quality Monitoring Stations (AWQMS) on lakes in the Burrishoole catchment, Lough Furnace and Lough Feeagh. The stations are situated on buoys moored in the middle of the lakes, with electronic sensors and telemetry transmitting data every 2 minutes to our lab in Furnace.
Fish Rearing
We run a comprehensive range of freshwater salmonid fish rearing facilities. Our facilities include collection and holding of broodstock, egg incubation, 2 isolated hatchery units and both indoor and outdoor rearing ponds.
Burrishoole Fishery
The Burrishoole Fishery lies in the west of Ireland some 5km north west of the town of Newport, Co. Mayo. Owned and run by the Marine Institute, it is one of Ireland’s premier Lough fisheries for salmon.
Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS)
As part of the Marine Institute Newport Strategy, a new 44,000 litre freshwater recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) was completed in 2019.