Gaelcholaiste Dhoire complete the Foyle & Carlingford Ambassador Programme
Students from year ten at Gaelcholáiste Dhoire have participated and completed the first Foyle & Carlingford Ambassador school programme this term during the week storm Agnes hit the UK and Ireland.
Day 1
Our intrepid Ambassadors embarked on a week of activity with Jack and Michael, beginning on Tuesday with a trip to the tourist centre at Benone where they spent the morning learning about their local environment and the Loughs Agency’s role in protecting it. Then spending a surprisingly bright afternoon performing a shore survey and litter pick along the strand, with the inclement weather arriving shortly after the group where on the bus back to school.
Topics Included: Introduction
- Loughs Agency: Who we are and our role managing our waterways
- Local biodiversity, habitats & ecosystems
- Sustainability
- John Muir
- Leave No Trace
- Mapping workshop
Topics Included: Benone Beach
- Local marine biodiversity & ocean literacy
- Litter breakdown time lines & litter pick
- Citizen Science
- Safety at the shore
Day 2
On their second day of the programme the group went fishing at Cashel Lake Trout Fishery where conditions deteriorated through-out the morning and the day had to be cut short after lunch for the safety of everyone involved. The group, despite the weather, managed to catch several trout and were happy to endure the rain for the chance of a catch. The experience of enduring the rain and then being able to get out of waterproofs and welly boots and onto a warm dry bus for lunch will hopefully stay with this group.
Topics Included:
- Catch & release best practices
- Freshwater fish species
Day 3
Due to storm Agnes we had to postpone the Thursday activities set for Roe Valley Country park, so Friday became day 3, which involved a trip to Benone and a surfing experience with Long Line Surf Club. The Ambassadors really enjoyed this experience and the weather held up for us.
- Team Building activities
- Surfing Lessons
Day 4
With Storm Agnes no longer a threat we rescheduled our trip to Roe Valley Country Park for the Monday of the following week. The Ambassadors joined Jack and Michael for a day spent exploring the parks biodiversity and learning about the life cycle of salmon native to the river Roe and their incredible migrations. The group learned how to gather invertebrate samples using kick nets under Jack’s guidance and in the afternoon performed their own citizen science timed survey to measure quality of the water. This being the final day of the programme we awarded them their certificates including the Cast award and Foyle & Carlingford Ambassadors certificate.
Topics Included:
- River habitat study
- Electrofishing Demo
- Kicknet sampling & macro invertebrate ID
- Freshwater ecosystems
- Life cycle of the Atlantic Salmon
- Safety at a river
