Scientists have warned that the extraction of water by local authorities in the west of Ireland is threatening the growth in stocks of a rare breed of fish, which exists only in the world's purest waters, the Arctic Char.
Scientists have pointed to what they called "worrying levels" of water being taken from mountainside lakes that stretch from Co Donegal all the way down to Co Kerry.
The rare fish is also threatened by other, less exotic species, like the Rudd, according to the outcome of surveys undertaken by the Irish Char Conservation Group.
The study revealed that in one instance - at Killarney's Upper Lake, once regarded as a stronghold of the Arctic char, and among the least-polluted in the area - rudd have taken over completely.
Positively however, new populations of the char have appeared in Kerry's Cloon Lake and in Lough Derriana, outside the town of Waterville, where they were thought to have disappeared long since.
And on Co Donegal's Inishowen peninsular, char have been the only fish found in Lough Fad. Ron Greer, a Scottish fisheries biologist, said that made the lake special as only two other similar discoveries have been made in Britain.
"It's a first of its kind for Ireland," he said. "To discover new populations in a modern country is astounding."
Char have had a presence in Ireland since the Ice Age, which left them stranded in the country's mountain lakes and forced a halt to their up to then migratory habits.
Now, though, environmentalists are warning they could face future dangers - unless the thirst of Ireland's human population can be diverted from the char's natural habitat.