Probe to start after Quoile river fish kill

Probe to start after Quoile river fish kill

6 June 2012 - by David Telford

ANGLERS have expressed alarm following the discovery of around 100 dead fish washed up along the banks of the Quoile River in Downpatrick.

The discovery was made yesterday morning at the Jane’s Shore area with anglers claiming that an additional 100 fish may have died and fallen to the riverbed or been snatched by birds.

Anglers say they have no idea what caused the fish kill and are this morning to raise their concerns with a number of organisations including the Rivers Agency and Department of Culture Arts and Leisure.

Mr. Trevor Love, of Down District Anglers, has described the fish kill as “concerning” and said the key thing is to find out what happened.

He said no dead fish have been discovered on the Inch Abbey side of the Belfast Road bridge at the Quoile or on the other side of the Old Belfast Road bridge.

Mr. Love, who has been angling at the Downpatrick river for many years, does not believe the dead fish, which are all roach, perished as a result of sewage spill at the Belfast Road treatment plant.

“Whatever the problem, it appears to be concentrated in an area between the two bridges. There is no major water discoloration but we have detected a slight change at a drain which feeds into the river at the Old Belfast Road,” he explained.

“Seagulls have been swooping to eat the dead fish all day and the major problem we have is that as it’s a public holiday, we can’t make contact with the statutory agencies until Wednesday.”

Mr. Love revealed a number of dead fish were discovered caught up in reeds along the river bank by anglers who carried out an inspection of the area.

He also confirmed that anglers fishing at the Quoile Road area along the river yesterday were catching rudd and had not spotted any dead fish.

Mr. Love said it seems strange that only one particular species has died as a result of whatever the problem is at the waterway, suggesting if there had been a sewage spill, this would have impacted on all the fish in the Quoile, not just roach.

He added: “At this stage we are at a complete loss to understand what has happened. Hopefully the experts will be bale to tell us once they have visited the Quoile and tested the water quality.”