Otter in The Lee

the beer revolu

Spotted an otter in the North channel this morning.
I reckon that's s good sign of water quality.

Video here.

horgan_p

I've seen one over by Lapps Quay a lot.

minidazzler

that's dave, cool guy, we chill every now and then.

Doge

the beer revolu wrote: »

Spotted an otter in the North channel this morning.
I reckon that's s good sign of water quality.

Video here.

I reckon you should swim in it and see if you're right!

pwurple

Great video, otters are fab to see in the city.

ABajaninCork

It's lovely! Being a city girl, it's not often I get to see this up close.

Cork Lass

There's one seen very often on the south channel near the Holy Trinity church. It makes me smile when I see it. Cool video.

cantdecide

the beer revolu wrote: »

Spotted an otter in the North channel this morning.
I reckon that's s good sign of water quality.

Video here.

I've seen otters in the past few years and yes, it's a very good sign for the environment:)

the beer revolu

waveform wrote: »

I reckon you should swim in it and see if you're right!

People swim in the Lee annually for the Lee Swim.

Outkast_IRE

Yeah I reckon the water quality is improved a lot in the last 20 years, have seen all sorts of wildlife in there the last few years, its defo a good sign.

Knasher

There are seals quite often in the water as well, they sit on the steps occasionally.

SeaFields

Brown trout are a good indicator of water quality and the Lee is full of them. I watched a seal eat a salmon one morning by the bus station too and very few people noticed him. Its full of wildlife if people took a moment to look.

two wheels good

I'll see your seal and raise you a killer whale....
I can't find any photos online though. It was June 2001 apparently

Nice otter btw.

the beer revolu

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Yeah I reckon the water quality is improved a lot in the last 20 years, have seen all sorts of wildlife in there the last few years, its defo a good sign.

Just since the main drainage works. I think that finished in 2005 or so and the river has been getting steadily cleaner since.

SpaceTime

The water quality in the Lee's currently better than it has probably been in hundreds of years! A lot of wildlife that's never been in the city centre will gradually appear further upstream.

You have to remember that until the main drainage project was complete, Cork City and many other developments flushed a very large % of its sewage directly into the Lee and Cork Harbour!

The Liffey was similar and I think it actually got so bad in both cities that it basically killed human activity along the river fronts too. I mean, you couldn't have had the Bordwalk cafes in Cork 20 years ago, you'd have been unable to keep your coffee + sandwich down with the stench of the water!

So, hopefully our river frontages in Cork and in Dublin too become more populated both with animals and human life too!

Cork's sewage has only been properly treated since 2004. So, barely 10 years of clean water running through the city centre channels.

evilivor

the beer revolu wrote: »

People swim in the Lee annually for the Lee Swim.

They're just going through the motions.

SpaceTime

I wonder how long it will be before the river is fully clean?

800+ years of 'motions' would take a while to wash away. The silt must be full of all sorts of gunk.

who_me

Knasher wrote: »

There are seals quite often in the water as well, they sit on the steps occasionally.

Yeah, there's one (I'm assuming it's the same one) swimming by the bus station very regularly. Sometimes you see it playing with a fish.

As said above, there's also been a couple of killer whales, and a pod of dolphins/porpoises by the South Gate bridge.

Pitcairn

Great video. I saw one at South Gate opposite Beamish a few years back.
This nature study on Cork CIty says they are fairly common in the city centre which is rare for most cities.

http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/County_Heritage_Services/Cork/Nature_in_the_City-Cork/Nature_in_the_City_1.pdf

spookwoman

Love the video, I have lost a long time watching them. Have one here on waterford that seems to not care about the humans that much. Saw it twice in a space of a few days. One day it decided to annoy a cormorant on the pole the 2nd time it went fishing then came in onto the bank about 50 yards away and ate some fish before going off again.

aratsarse101

I saw a Grey Seal about 6 foot long today climbing the weir just below the Kingsley Hotel.

gimmick

I walk there the whole time and have never seen anything fun like that. Must keep trying...

aratsarse101

Made contact on the Monday with the seal expert in UCC and she said there is one in the Lee but it was her first time hearing that it climbed the weir.

the beer revolu

I've often seen seals in the Lee but never much upstream of the Mercy.