Fergal Kearney's Photos

Downtime for the boats are at hundreds of these small quays (called 'kays' by locals). The eels themselves are delivered to the Fishermen's Co-operative in Toomebridge for sorting, packing and exporting (alive) to London, France, Germany and The Netherlands.

These two brothers are the latest generation of a long line of lough fishermen, stretching back some 8000 years, and are following on a tradition of net fishing that dates from the 1700s.

Here, the eel catch is delivered into the barrell for storage. Eels can live for up to 24 hours out of water so long as the conditions remain damp, but in this environment they are stored, sometimes in their hundreds in a barrel filled with loughwater.

Gulls are ocean dwellers but they have found a lucrative feeding ground on Lough Neagh, which is around 30 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. They pick their time well in this shot as this is the catch being hauled aboard. Unwanted fish and thrown back immediately into the water, with the eels separated and stored on board.

This striking close up of the fisherman and his latest tool for drawing in the net from the Lough floor is enhanced by the glow of the lowering sun and the vivid colours of the boats and boatmen. Rather than draw the net solely by hand, this circular reel is used to wind the net in from the water, before it is rolled up by hand on the deck.

As I headed around the fishing boat it is caught in the setting sun, silhouetted against a hazy September sky. Lough Neagh is often subject to sea like conditions as it is exposed to the elements. On this evening, a 3 foot swell made photography a bit tricky for this photographer...sea legs quickly developed or these shots would have been impossible!

A longer shot of the fishing boat with it's fibre dragnet extended for some half a mile down on the Lough floor. Rudimentary equipment and mostly drawn in by hand, the work is time consuming and backbreaking, sometimes out on the water for days to land a viable catch.

My current project is with the Lough Neagh Fishermen's Co-operative in Northern Ireland. Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in Great Britain and Ireland and one of the largest in Europe. This is the first time that a photographic documentary of the fishermen of the Lough has been undertaken and it has been my great privilege to join these men far out from land plying their trade in the same manner as countless generations. Here a traditional Lough Neagh Fishing Boats comes around with its drag net cast out to floor of the Lough to catch the famous Eel.

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