Artwork to be unveiled in Mayo to celebrate biodiversity week

The Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) in collaboration with Mayo County Council will launch an Arctic Char mosaic art piece by artist Annaliese Brown along with a new Mayo Blue Dots booklet and film during Biodiversity Week.

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

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 where the native and rare arctic char remains. 

Blue Dots are high status objective water bodies, and there are 48 of these in County Mayo. When achieving this target, they have the highest ecological quality of all waters and often a greater diversity of species that are sensitive to pollution.

_{The flyer for the launch}

Speaking ahead of the launch, Dr Bernadette White, Blue Dot Catchments Programme Manager at LAWPRO said they are ‘looking forward’ to the launch and celebration of  ‘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,” she added.

The mosaic will be unveiled at 11am by Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, councillor Michael Loftus. 

The film and booklet will be launched thereafter in Tourmakeady Community Centre at noon, with copies of the booklet available for attendees.  

For further information on the event, please email Éanna Hyland, Community Water Officer for Mayo ehyland@lawaters.ie.