A substantial fish-kill on the river Triogue, near Mountmellick, Co Laois, is being investigated by the Southern Regional Fisheries Board. This follows serious slurry pollution of a leading trout river in Co Mayo at the weekend.
Mr Simon O'Mara, secretary of the Mountmellick Angling Club, said he discovered dead trout in the river on Sunday while preparing for a fishing competition. "We lost 500 mature trout through pollution in August last year, and just when the river was recovering we get hit again like this," he said.
Mr O'Mara said he had walked the river the previous night and there was no sign of pollution. He believed something must have happened overnight to cause the kill. He said that while the kill was not as large as last year's, it was none the less a major setback for his club and the quality of the water, which he believes is being polluted by sewage from Portlaoise.
Mr O'Mara said the kill had been reported to Laois County Council and the Southern Regional Fisheries Board, which were seeking the source of the pollution. Meanwhile, Western Regional Fisheries Board investigations are continuing into a major fishkill that followed the release of almost 80,000 gallons of slurry into the Carrowbeg River southeast of Westport last weekend. A wall of a concrete tank containing the slurry collapsed, releasing the contents into the river 15 km upstream of Knappabeg Lake, one of Mayo's prime fishing waters. The slurry reached the lake and killed hundreds of trout and gudgeon.
The Carrowbeg River is an important wild brown trout spawning and nursery river for Knappabeg Lake and was classified as a class one river in accordance with the EPA water quality classification scheme.
The Western Regional Fisheries Board is concerned about the immediate and long-term impact of the spillage on the fish populations in the Carrowbeg river system and Knappabeg Lake. Calls have been made for stricter regulation of the transfer of slurry by the farming community, as successive spills have caused serious damage to fishing waters and lakes around the country.