Fact 1:
The most common types of fish found in the Shannon are perch, pike, brown trout, salmon, bream, stone loach, eels, roach, rudd and sticklebacks.
Fact 2:
On average a salmon will live for 2-7 years.
Fact 3:
Grilse Salmon generally only spawn once in their lives but some salmon called multi sea winter salmon have been found to spawn up to three times, having returned to the sea successfully.
Fact 4:
Although a single female salmon can lay 1,000 to 17,000 eggs, very few of those eggs actually survive from fertilization to maturity. An average of 3 fish returning for every parent fish that spawns would be considered good reproduction.
Fact 5:
When salmon are laying their eggs, they can displace up to 3 tonnes of gravel!
Fact 6:
Irish eels migrate annually to spawn, making a 5,000km journey to the Sargassa Sea near the Bahamas!
Fact 7:
Kingfishers can be found on the Blackriver and eat minnows and sticklebacks, but they also eat aquatic insects, freshwater shrimps and tadpoles to top up their diet.
Fact 8:
Trees and bushes along the river bank form what is called the riparian zone. This zone acts as a natural route for wildlife to travel along the river.
Fact 9:
The bridge in Bridgetown originally had 3 arches but one has been covered up leaving the two remaining arches that you can now see.
Fact 10:
The bats that like to skim insects off the river are called Daubentons Bats. There are a number of batboxes around the green area of Bridgetown to help them roost..