Trip to the Marine Institute

First class had a wonderful day at the Marine Institute in Furnace on Wednesday 1st of March. We had the opportunity to see salmon at various life stages – salmon eggs, salmon that are one year old and adult salmon. We learned how the salmon are tagged so that they can be tracked and information can be gathered about their journeys. We discovered that these clever fish swim from Lough Furnace out to Clew Bay, all the way across the Atlantic ocean to Greenland and then most incredibly find their way back to Lough Furnace once more.

We visited the weather station where every day records are kept of the sunshine, rainfall, temperature and wind speeds. In the laboratory we were able to work as scientists, examining little creatures under the microscope and testing water samples from the nearby lake. We also were able to handle fish that had been caught such as squid, John Dory, blue mouth, three bearded rockling, cuckoo ray and crab.

It was a very enjoyable day and a special word of thanks to all the staff of the Marine Institute who made us feel so welcome and were so willing to answer all our questions.