Senior management from Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) are due to meet angling representatives in Co Cork this Friday 22 August in relation to the fish kill on the River Blackwater.
IFI’s acting CEO Suzanne Campion will be among a delegation due to attend the meeting to discuss the matter with key stakeholders.
Campion said: “IFI’s primary function is to protect, conserve and manage freshwater fish and their habitats.
“The large fish kill on the River Blackwater is very distressing for anglers and others who enjoy the river.
“It is also distressing for IFI staff who have devoted many years caring for fish in the catchment.
“We await a report on the event from the Marine Institute to try establish a cause of the fish mortalities.
“Our dedicated staff will continue to actively monitor the river to assess the scale of the incident.”
IFI estimates that between 8,000 and 10,000 fish have died in the River Blackwater within the past 11 days.
Estimating the number of mortalities in a fish kill is always difficult as many dead fish will be taken by predators, caught under banks out of sight, will sink to the bottom of pools or be washed downstream.
It is also possible that the same fish may be reported by different observers.
The Marine Institute’s advice provided to IFI is that there is no precedent for dead fish to be removed from the river. Deceased fish should be left where they are found.
The EPA, which has been liaising with IFI’s lead senior fisheries environmental officer throughout the investigation, inspected water treatment plants and licensed commercial discharges in the affected area. The EPA’s preliminary results did not report anything of concern.
In addition to high temperatures and low flow conditions at the River Blackwater, underlying water quality issues over a period of time may be a contributory factor in this fish kill.
