This article is from page 34 of the 2008-02-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 34 JPG
TRANSITION-Y EAR students from Ennistymon VEC have proven that pollution from the town is disturbing the ecosystem of the Inagh riven and could actually be responsible for the disappearance of the otter locally.
As part of the school entry for the Eco-Unisco Project, the students un- dertook a series of test to determine if pollution from the town was dam- aging the local river.
“We have entered the Eco-Unisco project for two years in a row now. The first year we built a solar panel and the second year a windmill,’ said teacher, Mary Joyce.
“So I asked the students what they
wanted to do. They started talking about the river, and wondering where the otters in the river had gone.”
This led the students to undertake research on the otter, and to discover that pollution is one of the main fac- tors which drive otters out of certain areas. Not content with this, howev- er, the transition-year students took to the river last Thursday, attempting to prove beyond all doubt that pol- lution from the town was damaging the river.
“We went down to the river with large nets and started collecting the insects that were in the water. We were trying to find out whether the bugs in the river were mostly ones that needed high oxygen or low oxy-
gen. High oxygen insects is a sign of good quality clean water and the presence of low oxygen insects is a sign of polluted water,’ said student, Michael McCormac.
“We caught more than 20 speci- mens altogether. There was much more high oxygen insects in the wa- ter before the town than we found after the town. This, we think, is be- cause sewage from the town is pol- Leiseetem atom eAiole
“We have brought the insect back to the school now and we are going to study them and see what else we can learn from them. After than we need to put together a 3,000-word re- port on our findings.
“The whole reason for this work
is to see why the otters have left the river. They like clean water and they used to be very common around here but not anymore. If we could treat the sewerage better before it goes into the river then we might be able to get the otters back.”
When they have completed their work, the transition-year students plan to bring their findings to the at- tention of Clare County Council.