When a fisherman must go to court to save a lough

Lough Neagh is the largest lake in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. It supplies drinking water to much of Northern Ireland and supports a unique ecosystem, a historic fishing community and livelihoods that stretch back generations. Today, this vital natural asset is in crisis.

For several summers, Lough Neagh has been smothered by severe blue-green algal blooms driven by excessive nutrient pollution. The green slicks spreading across the water are not merely unpleasant to look at. They signal ecological failure. Wildlife is disappearing, fish stocks are under pressure, and communities around the lough are increasingly concerned about the consequences of prolonged pollution.

Against this backdrop, local eel fisherman Declan Conlon has brought a legal challenge against the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). His case asks the courts to examine whether the authorities have fulfilled their legal responsibilities to protect Lough Neagh and those who depend upon it from nutrient pollution.

In his sworn affidavit to the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, Declan described the long tradition of eel fishing in his family. He told the court, “Our father James Gerard Conlon was an eel fisherman and his father Hughie Conlon before him was an eel fisherman. Going further back than that, beyond memory, my family would all have been fishermen.”

For families like the Conlon’s, fishing on Lough Neagh is not simply a job but a way of life built on generations of knowledge and experience. The eel fishery is internationally recognised, and Lough Neagh eel holds Protected Geographical Indication status.

But what Declan and many others are witnessing today is a serious decline in the ecosystem that once supported this way of life.

The algal blooms affecting the lough are the visible symptom of excessive nutrients entering the water from agricultural runoff and wastewater discharges. When nutrients accumulate in a lake, they fuel the explosive growth of algae that can damage ecosystems and threaten wildlife.

Declan has seen these changes directly. He has described a lough where the flies that once fed the eels have disappeared, birdlife has diminished, and at times the blue-green algae gives off a very bad smell, an unpleasant gassy odour. The fishing season, once a reliable source of income, has been severely disrupted.

As Declan told the court, “My way of life has been destroyed by the blue green algae and I want the DAERA to do whatever is necessary to stop the algae and safeguard and protect Lough Neagh, the fish, the flies and the wildlife for the benefit of future generations.”

It should never fall to a fisherman to bring a case of this magnitude. Yet Declan’s action highlights an important truth: environmental protections only matter when they are implemented effectively. When they are not, the environment and the communities dependent upon them suffer.

Northern Ireland has legal frameworks designed to protect rivers, lakes and coastal waters from pollution. River Basin Management Plans and regulatory controls on nutrient discharges are intended to ensure water bodies achieve good ecological status.

But when pollution persists year after year, and ecological decline becomes visible to those who depend on the water, it is right to ask whether those legal duties are being fulfilled.

Declan’s judicial review asks the court to examine that question.

We welcome the interventions of River Action and Friends of Earth NI in this case. 

River Action has a strong track record of holding environmental regulators to account through the courts, including legal actions over pollution in the River Wye challenging the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales on nutrient pollution oversight. River Action is applying to intervene to assist the court by clarifying what constitutes a lawful River Basin Management Plan and by addressing the duty of regulators to put in place effective and enforceable measures where pollution is causing clear ecological harm.

This case is not about assigning blame to any single sector. Farmers, fishermen, businesses and residents all depend on the health of Lough Neagh. Rather, the case seeks clarity about whether current plans to tackle nutrient pollution are strong enough to restore the lough.

The legal question at the heart of the challenge is straightforward: when a protected water body is clearly failing, are authorities taking the steps required by law to reverse that decline?

Judicial review ensures public authorities act within the law and fulfil duties placed upon them.

This case matters not only for the Conlon family or the fishermen of Lough Neagh. It matters for everyone who depends on clean water and responsible environmental governance.

Lough Neagh is central to Northern Ireland’s landscape, culture and water supply. Allowing it to decline year after year is not inevitable, nor acceptable.

Declan Conlon has shown courage in bringing this case. His aim is not only to defend his livelihood and way of life, but to ensure the law protects the lough for future generations.