The splendid 10 metre long sculpture, Big Fish, uveiled in 1999 by Local artist John Harkness, symbolises the rebirth that has taken place inthe River Lagan in recaent years. Much of this is due to the building of the Lagan Weir in 1994. Prior to this  the Lagan's water level varied by 3 metres between high and low tide. This meant that at every low tide, unsightly and smelly mud flats were exposed as far up the river as Ormeau Embankment.

The Lagan is no longes tidal above the Weir, as it maintains a constant minimum water level upstream. A considerable investment has been made to dredge the river and remove contaminants and to install a riverbed aeration sysem to mix the saline and fresh water upstream, The weir project has undoubredly repaid is original investment many times and been a catalyse for the regeneration of Belfast. Less well known is how the story of how the weir, and sensitive management of the river corridor has starred to pay immeasurable dividends with a different sort of regeneration & the rebirth of the tidal Lagan as a wildlife habitac. Here are some of the species to look out for.