Incident in which 5,000 fish died in Cork river 'heartbreaking for community'

Vivienne Clarke

A director of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), Sean Long has described a fish kill on the environmentally sensitive River Allow in Cork at the weekend as “heartbreaking for the community".

An investigation is being conducted by IFI, the State agency responsible for the protection and conservation of freshwater fish and habitats, into the incident in which at least 5,000 fish have died.

Mr Long told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the IFI received a call on Sunday afternoon about a spillage at a nearby water treatment plant.

“A local senior fisheries environmental officer went to the location and began an inspection of the river downstream of the plant. And unfortunately, he was met with a scene of devastation, really the only way to describe it. And the river was littered with dead fish, trout, salmon fry, lamprey, eel. There were no insects, even flies, beetles, anything.

"Any indicators of life. And as anyone who looked into the river will know, it's a living, dynamic habitat. You know, insects, the fish darting about. But the river was effectively sterilised, for roughly about 4km or 5km, which was mapped out on Sunday.

“It's an ecological disaster for the fish in the river, at a time of already significant biodiversity loss. It's literally heartbreaking for the community and particularly the anglers there.”

Officers if IFI walked along 8km of the river yesterday and found there was no sign of further fish kills down river towards the town of Kanturk.

“We think that the damage was done, either Saturday night, Sunday. And then it diluted and washed down through the river.”

Mr Long was cautious about stating the cause of the fish kill, but admitted that they had “a fair idea” of what had caused the incident.

He also declined to comment when asked if there was any threat to human life.