Lough Neagh is the largest lake in the British Isles. It covers an area
of 383 km2 being 30 km along its longest axis. From
pre-historic times the lake and its rivers influenced the settlements of
man in the role of a fishery and communication link with the interior of
Ireland. Ireland's first canal, completed in 1787, linked the small but
significant coal deposits of Tyrone to Dublin by way of the lough and
later the Lagen Canal became an important commercial route to the new
city of Belfast.
Today, only sand barge transport persists but the lough supports
Europe's largest eel fishery and provides commercial salmon, trout and
perch catches, besides acting as an important centre for recreational
pursuits. Increasingly it has become the major water resource for
Northern Ireland supplying much of the demand for the heavily populated
Belfast area.
Biologically the lough is rich, sustaining enormous invertebrate
populations of, for example, chironomids and gammarids alongside the
comparatively exotic glacial relict, Mysis relicta. Its bird life
makes the lough an area of very special conservation interest as a
Ramsar site.
The book describes the basic ecology of the lough with particular
emphasis on both the interaction of the physical, chemical and
biological components and the role of ecology in resource management.
Extensive recent researches are set in geological, geographical and
historical context and together with palaeolimnological studies of the
sediments are used to trace major changes in the ecology of the lough
under man's influence, especially in the past 100 years.
