Successful Applicants of Small Conservation Grants 2025 Announced
The four successful applicants of the 2025 Small Conservation Grants were announced this week, and include conservation activities involving a freshwater invertebrate, marine mammals, sharks and skates and rays, and seabirds, based in Galway and around Ireland.
It was a really difficult decision this year, said Jovita Mockute, Aquarium Administrator, who was part of this years scoring panel.
We received the highest number of applications since launching the fund 3 years ago, all of which were of very high quality. We wish we had the budget to fund them all, and hope that the other applicants will find a way to carry out their projects and activities as soon as possible. The final selection includes a number of hands-on conservation projects, which we hope will make real impact and change to species and local communities.
For example, the white-clawed crayfish, Austropotamobius pallipes (WCC), is Ireland’s only native crayfish species and is currently facing a catastrophic decline due to outbreaks of crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci, CFP). This water mould is lethal to WCC and has rapidly spread through Irish freshwater systems in recent years. As an EU Habitats Directive annex listed species, WCC is afforded full legal protection, with conservation efforts increasingly urgent due to its endangered status.
Currently, the detection of WCC relies on traditional field survey methods such as trapping, hand searches, and kick sampling. These techniques are not only labor-intensive and weather-dependent, but they also present a significant biosecurity risk, potentially aiding the spread of A. astaci. Additionally, they are not feasible in many river systems that are deep, fast-flowing, or obstructed by vegetation or debris.
To address these challenges, environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling has been adopted under the National Crayfish Plague Surveillance Programme, offering a non-invasive and effective tool for detection. However, eDNA results often require secondary confirmation due to limitations such as degradation, false negatives, or contamination. There is a pressing need for a reliable, non-invasive, secondary confirmatory detection method that avoids introducing additional biosecurity threats.
The Crayfish project, carried out by Bogna Griffin proposes a proof-of-concept study to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation detection dogs as a non-invasive, bio secure tool for detecting WCC in Irish freshwater systems.
Another of the successful projects, the Common Tern Rafts, will be carried out Galway Conservation Volunteers. The Common Tern Project was born out of a realization in 2019 that the colony of Common Terns in Galway City had been falling steadily and was then only 20 breeding pairs. Any further reduction would bring the centuries old migration of Common Terns to Galway City to an end. The colony would just be unable to protect their nests while searching for food to feed the chicks.
Action was needed and Conservation Volunteers Galway took on a project to restore the colony to its original size. The core problem was that their traditional breeding location on Mutton Island (and alternative locations on Hare Island and Rabbitt Island) was being heavily predated mainly by American mink which had ready access to the islands.
With Heritage Council funding, two small wooden nesting rafts and wooden sides in Lough Atalia became three large recycled plastic rafts with 600mm high clear polycarbonate sides. The location of the rafts in Lough Atalia plus the polycarbonate sides has proved 100% effective against American mink. The number of Common Tern chicks which hatched and took to the air increased from a humble 3 chicks in 2020 to 64 chicks in 2024. Technical support for the project has kindly been provided to the project throughout by the the Department of Natural Sciences and the Environment in Atlantic Technological University, including preparation of an Appropriate Assessment for the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
However, two of the three rafts now need to be brought onshore, cleared of all possible stones, raised by 100 mm to maximize the nesting space and new stones put on them. After the upgrade is completed in September 2025 there will be three improved nesting rafts upon which in April 2026 the surviving Common Terns (and the chicks which hatched in previous years) will hopefully again breed and rear their young.
The two rafts need to be raised by 100 mm because they are barely above sea level and wave action pushes in the stones such that about 25% of the space on both rafts is unusable.
By raising the rafts the usable space will by brought back to 100% on both rafts. This will allow greater spacing of the nests and increased nesting capacity on the rafts. This should reduce the spread of Avian Influenza were it to occur next year.
The Common Tern project is at a crucial stage where every effort is needed to protect the remaining Common Terns going forward.
Heading to the south coast, Siún Ní Cheallaigh will complete surveys of Risso’s Dolphins. The Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) is an understudied, native Irish cetacean species. Risso’s dolphins are thought to spend the winter months in offshore waters and come inshore from spring to autumn to give birth to and raise their calves. From our limited knowledge on their behaviour, the hotspots for summer Risso’s dolphin activity and calving appear to be the Blasket Islands in Kerry, Dursey Island in Cork and the Saltee islands in Wexford. Sightings of Risso’s dolphins with calves are most regularly reported to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) from these locations.
Targeted surveys aiming to locate and collect photo identification imagery of Risso’s dolphins have not been performed to date in Irish coastal waters. This project aims to generate an updated photo-ID catalogue that may be used to identify unique social groups and track their return to these calving sites.
Additionally, a hydrophone will be used to record their vocalisations where possible. The Irish recordings will be compared to vocalisations recorded elsewhere in Europe and the wider North Atlantic to investigate whether there may be evidence of an Irish subpopulation. Risso’s dolphins in Southern California and the Hawaiian islands were discovered to utilise different types of vocalisations, for example, and this may be indicative of different regional subpopulations within the species. Identifying unique subpopulations is important for information the conservation of the species and is particularly topical now considering Ireland’s move to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2030.
As the IUCN status of Risso’s dolphins recently changed from Data Deficient to Endangered, they may be an important cetacean species to consider offering increased protection to in Ireland.
And finally, we will help fund the Purse Search Project, by Marine Dimensions which will be led by Bríd O’Connor. Purse Search Ireland is Ireland’s national citizen science database of Irish shark and skate egg case sightings.
Purse Search’s data has been very valuable to conservation efforts within Ireland, having contributed to governmental reports including the Irish Red List of Cartilaginous Species, as well as the Ecological Sensitivity Analysis of the Celtic Sea to inform the future designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
Data from the project has also supported scientific research. Most recently, Purse Search data was included in the study “The distribution of the juvenile stages and egg cases of skates (Rajidae) around the British Isles” (Ellis et al., 2024). This study provided an overview of skate spawning and nursery areas around Ireland and the UK to inform fisheries management and marine spatial planning, including the identification and delineation of IUCN Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs). This kind of data is invaluable for better fisheries management and protecting key habitats for sharks and skates.
With its long-standing value and data that dates back over 15 years, Purse Search Ireland stands to benefit from increased funding by increasing egg case identification throughput, as well as by increasing our ability to share our findings with the public and collaborate effectively with educators and conservationists. With this grant, we aim to create a collection of modern and accessible educational resources about Ireland’s sharks, skates, and rays in both English and Irish.
These will include:
- Outreach materials such as posters, booklets, and infographics that can be shared at schools, libraries, aquariums, and the general public.
- A guide that includes a taxonomic tree of all chondrichthyan species found in Irish waters, helping people understand concepts such as differences between skates and rays, or what it means when two species are in the same “family.”
- Maps showing the distribution of these species as well as where species have been recorded (using publicly available data like DATRAS scientific surveys), to show that sharks are all around Irish waters, even if we don’t often see them.
Thank you to all the applicants who submitted a small conservation grant 2025, and to all the visitors and supporters of the Aquarium. It is through your support that we can run the small conservation project initative each year.
We wish all the successful applicants the best of luck with their projects.
