Athlone Sub Aqua Club

Ground-nesting Bird Season:
As well as Mayfly fishing, this time of the year also sees Ireland's Ground-nesting birds sitting on nests, or with young chicks/ducklings.
Lough Ree is currently Ireland's most important site for breeding waterbirds and efforts are being made to ensure this remains the case.
The Breeding Waders EIP is a locally-led project that is paying landowners and farmers to manage land for breeding birds.

Support for this work by other lake users would be very much appreciated. The accompanying maps show the Ground-nesting bird hotspots. The Breeding Waders EIP has no enforcement role and is not stopping anglers from using the lake or islands, but is trying to raise awareness of the serious problem of disturbance to these birds at this critical time. The project asks that anglers are aware of the breeding bird hotspots and try to avoid landing for extended periods of time in the highlighted areas. Prolonged visits to these areas will cause nest failure and/or chick loss.

Please keep all dogs off these areas from April-July. If pulling-in or stopping while out on the lake, wooded shorelines and mainland shorelines, generally offer less risk of disturbance to many species. Breeding bird reports and sightings would be appreciated by the project team.

For further details please contact [email protected]
Breeding Waders EIP Project

Yesterday four Midlands candidates took part in the Diver Coxswain Instructor examination on Lough Ree and the River Shannon in the Athlone area.

The candidates first completed an intensive written exam followed by a practical assessment carried out in glorious weather. On the water, they were assessed on high-speed handling and manoeuvring in and around harbours and congested areas whilst covering general boat management.

The Diver Coxswain Instructor Course focuses on instructing candidates in the control and operation of a dive boat. It is designed to equip and assess instructors with the skills, knowledge and experience required to deliver the Diver Coxswain course and coach future candidates in the safe operation of dive boats.

We are pleased to confirm that the four Midlands candidates who successfully qualified were Vivian Reynolds and James Donnellan from Athlone Sub Aqua Club, and Paul Clancy and Dave Malone from County Longford Scuba Divers.

Many thanks to the examiners who all travelled to support and deliver a successful day from Roscommon Sub Aqua, Offaly Search and Recovery and The Curragh Sub Aqua Club.😊👏

Diving Ireland

We kicked off our Wednesday evening training last night.
Smiley heads all round! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Please support! Sure to be a great night. 🎶 😊🎶