Cork fishkill could be 'biggest ever' in Ireland, with 30km affected

The chairman of the Mallow Trout Anglers Club, John Ruby, has said that suspected fungal infection, impacting thousands of fish in the River Blackwater, is potentially “the biggest fish kill in the history of the country”.

Mr Ruby told The Echo that the incident, which was first made known to the public by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) on August 12, has impacted up to 30km of the river to date, and not just 8km, as was believed last Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the IFI said last week that a possible fungal infection outbreak resulted in the death of up to 1,000 brown trout, spanning an 8km area of the River Blackwater, between Mallow and Roskeen Bridge in Lombardstown.

However, Mr Ruby said that up to 20,000 fish have since been killed as a result of the incident.

“As of now, we are looking at 25km to 30km of water affected, and it’s not stopping,” 

said Mr Ruby.

“We’re still waiting on result to come in, but the possibility of a fungal infection has been pushed on the long finger as a secondary cause for the whole thing – it's not the primary cause," said Mr Ruby, who is the chairman of the Mallow Trout Anglers Group.

“The Marine Institute has been down and took samples of fish for a toxicology report – but it’ll be another week, minimum, before anything comes back.

“At the moment we’ll be lucky to hold on to any species [in the River Blackwater] because they’ve been decimated completely.” 

Mr Ruby further said that it may require years of work before a full restoration of the marine area can be expected, as it is “getting closer and closer every day” to a sanitised river.

“We’re looking at 20,000 fish dead – this is very serious, it’s one hundred times more serious than it looked at the beginning of last week,” said Mr Ruby.

“It has spread so far – it's getting closer and closer every day [to a sanitised river].

“It’s not going to be in our lifetime that the river is fully restored, it’ll be the next generation before they can see an improvement.

“It’s probably the biggest fish kill in the history of the country.” 

Mr Ruby additionally highlighted how the incident will have “a knock-on effect” on fishing tourism and the local economy.

“This is going to have a huge effect on the club, fishing tourism and B&Bs and hotels,” said Mr Ruby.

“It will be detrimental to that side of things.”