Artwork to be unveiled at Lough Mask in Mayo during Biodiversity Week

THE Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), in collaboration with Mayo County Council, is launching an arctic char mosaic art piece by artist Annaliese Brown along with a new Mayo Blue Dots booklet and film.

The launch will take place at the beginning of national Biodiversity Week at Lough Mask on Saturday, May 18.

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 ahead of the launch, Dr. Bernadette White, Blue Dot catchments programme manager at LAWPRO, said: “We are looking forward to launching 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 will be unveiled at 11 a.m. at Lough Mask by the cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Councillor Michael Loftus. The film and booklet will be launched after in Tourmakeady Community Centre (12 noon) with copies of the booklet available for attendees. Dr. Fran Igoe of LAWPRO will give a keynote address on the rare species arctic char. There will be light refreshments available at the community centre.