The river Tyshe in north Kerry is the worst performing river in Kerry since 1989. Every year the EPA commits to water quality evaluations and unfortunately the river Tyshe has been the worst preformng river in all of Kerry almost every single year. It's not a very well known river but maybe you should know it. If you were to go walking from the Blackrock on Banna Strand to Ballyheigue you would have crossed over it. When you cross over the bridge on the way to the Blackrock you have two rivers one is called the Akeragh and the other is the Tyshe. You can see them in the picture below.
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| Blackrock Bannaa |
Both rivers are sluice gated and this probably is illegal technically because it has stopped the migration of protected species like Sea Trout, Salmon, Eels etc etc. Both these rivers have been intensely dredged and straightened as you can see in the screenshot on google maps. The Tyshe river is the most polluted in Kerry because of high levels of ammonia concentrates, nitrate concentrates, chloride concentrations, elevated nutrients and sediment issues. Also the Tysch river has six domestic wastewater systems with high P impact potential along the north and south tributaries of the Tyshe. Also a quarry with a section 4 license is been de-watered in the upper stretches of the Tyshe. From looking at image below it seems to me that the river goes under the quarry. I personally don't know but from the map one could assume this.
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| Ardfert Quarries, Rvier Tyshe |
The Tyshe River, falls within the Banna Drainage District. Kerry County Council has a statutory duty to maintain this Drainage District. The River Tyshe flows to the sea at Blackrock. The outfall at Blackrock is vulnerable to blockage from build-up of sand (Flood Risk Management Plan for the Tralee Bay-Feale River Basin, 2018). Sand and seaweed are excavated out of the channel opening. These works currently take place at least every two weeks, but this can be daily in the winter months. The annual cost of these works is estimated at approximately €150,000. The drainage systems back up when this outfall at Blackrock is not clear. Maintenance work is also carried out to keep tidal flaps, approx. 600m upstream of the outfall, functioning. Sluice gates are manually operated to close on high tides to prevent tide backing up on Tyshe River, once every few weeks (Flood Risk Management Plan for the Tralee Bay-Feale River Basin, 2018). As part of a national Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment, discontinuing the existing regime of removing silt and debris from the outfall at Blackrock is being explored.
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| Tyshe River, EPA Quality Record. |
