Episode 4 Sruthanna

What you're seeing in the bucket here is the fry here

that we've hatched out in the Ballinderry Fish Hatchery this year.

We've hatched out actually about close to one million fry

this year in the hatchery here. And what we're doing here is

putting them out into the Ballinderry River.

-What species are they?

-These are the Ballinderry Dollaghan fry.

-Can I actually see you do it, to see how it's done?

-Yes.

We usually put them in maybe two to three square...two to three per square metre.

That's the stocking policy here.

-I'll hold the bucket if that's all right.

-I'll put some in here

and hopefully these boys will come back to the same spot again

-as a three pounder, four pounder Dollaghan.

-And they'll come back here?

-They should, yes.

The rest of these boys will go at different points all over here?

-All over.

-So basically spread out? Crowd control?

-Crowd control, exactly.

You don't want overcrowding.

Frank, why is it important that you do this work?

Well...

it's very important we do this work because we've been here,

we've been putting these Dollaghan fry in for the last 20-25 years.

There'd be lots of parts of the Ballinderry where you'd have none of these Dollaghan. And

we feel if we weren't here putting these fish here,

then the numbers probably wouldn't be the same as they are today.

The work that you were doing with the project, what precisely was it?

The hatchery had already been very successful in rearing

small trout and releasing them into the river

but that was an unnatural situation

and it was much more natural for the trout to be able to breed themselves in the river.

Now you need a particular set of habitat, and this is an attempt to recreate that habitat.

There are two weirs across here

and below each weir, there is what's called a spawning ford.

Finished on the Tuesday night, and on the Thursday night

there were wild Dollaghan spawning on that run of water.

-Now there's a vote of confidence!

-Yes.

Mark, we're looking here at two fine fish. Similar but different.

What are we looking at?

Here we've got two trout from the Ballinderry river.

One's a brown trout and the other is Dollaghan trout.

When they're very small, it's hard to tell the difference between them,

but when they're adults, the difference is quite clear.

A brown trout has beautiful red spots with white circles around it.

It's a really, really beautiful fish.

Whereas the Dollaghan has just black spots.

The brown trout is going to spend all its life in the Ballinderry river.

It doesn't leave.

It's born here, it breeds here and it dies here eventually,

whereas the Dollaghan is unique.

It's only found in Northern Ireland, nowhere else in the world.

And it acts a bit like a salmon or a sea trout

in the fact it leaves the river and it goes to the Lough Neagh to feed

and then comes back again to lay its eggs.

It's a really unique fish and it's one that needs protection.

Stephen, this lifeboat has to be

one of the most important assets on Lough Neagh.

And for the people of Lough Neagh and for all the users.

It is a vital equipment to have.

It is a vital piece of Loch Neagh.

We have 156 square miles of water to cover and, as you can see, today,

as we look out across the water, it was calm.

Literally, an hour ago, it erupted to gale force three, you know.

It can change so, so quickly,

so it's very, very important for the safety of all users on the Lough.

What sort of incidents happen? What sort of rescues do you have to do?

Rescues can range from anything from a simple assist

to rescues where we rescue people where boats are actually sinking.

Already this year, we have rescued at least 20 persons off the Lough

already this year, and assisted maybe 15.

So, Keira, how long have you been on the crew?

I started last September, so it's coming up to a year.

What's it like for someone who's a relative rookie compared to the other guys in the boat?

Well, there are well experienced boys and girls,

so a lot of role models, I know what needs to be learned.

We've gone through exams as well, so....

What sort of exams did you have to go through?

Well, you have to go through VHF, a radio exam.

Basically, it shows you how to speak over the radio.

Different callouts and to tell that to coastguard..

Also, an RYA Level 1 an 2, so it's your basic boat handling manoeuvres and, erm,

your man overboard.

Is it difficult being a woman on this boat? I'm sure there's a lot of slagging goes on here.

There is. You have to be thick-skinned to be working in the lifeboat.

But, no, the boys are great, and, you know, they're good to me

and Sian, she's another girl in the lifeboat so they're good to us.

-I'm sure you can give as good as you get.

-Give as good as I got. It took me a while, but then I learned.

You'd need a fairly sizeable pool of people to man this boat, would you not?

Certainly, we do. Again, we actually have in Ardboe 20 fully competent crew.

We always like to keep our figures up around that.

It's not that you need all the crew at the same time.

The crew could be at work duties, the crew could be on holidays,

gone to the games...

we also have a sport festival so if an incident becomes bigger

than it initially is, we need more persons doing searches, on our shore searches.

We have 97 miles of shoreline in Lough Neagh, so it's a vast area to cover.

And we certainly need all the experience from our crews.

We have been paddling down Lough Neagh.

We know how big it is. How...and it is a huge place.

Can you cover the whole of it? Can you reach people in time?

Yes, we certainly can.

We have found during the years, especially with our high-performance boats from the bay,

we can be in Antrim, it's 11.5 miles, we can be in Antrim...

once the boats touches the water, just over 10 minutes.

Well, it must be very rewarding to work here

and to serve the community and the people who live around and who use the Lough here?

It definitely is. I don't really know many.

I came from a family that weren't really fishermen

or anything like that. Until I started to come on the Lough,

I never really knew much about it, so within this past year, I've learnt a lot.

How dangerous it is, I never realised the actual capacity of the Lough.

It's huge.

And it is very rewarding, so I'll continue doing it until so.

Well, tell you one thing.

Cormac and I are very glad there's people like you

out monitoring people like us.

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