Angler fury as thousands of fish wiped outin river kill

ANGLERS were angry yesterday after several thousand fish were wiped out in a mystery kill in the midlands.

Laois County Council officials and inspectors from the Southern Regional Fisheries Board believe it may be difficult to trace the source of the pollutant.

The major kill included an estimated 2,000 juvenile wild brown trout and salmon smolt.

Michael Walsh of the Durrow and District Anglers Club said it could take up to five years for the river to recover.

The kill occurred on the River Gully, a tributary of the Nore.

Mr Walsh, secretary of the 250-strong anglers’ club, said two year’s stock of wild brown trout were killed.

“The membership is really annoyed,” he said. “In recent years, in conjunction with the Southern Trout and Coarse Fishing Development Society, we carried out a lot of work to improve the rivers for both local and visiting anglers.”

He said the club’s rivers were popular with German and French anglers.

Laois County Council said yesterday the pollutant or the source had not been identified. The council is keeping an open mind on whether a pollutant was accidentally or deliberately discharged into the tributary, officials said.

The council’s acting director of services, Sean Mullins, revealed: “Samples from the water have been tested and they have not shown anything that could be identified as a cause.”

The alarm was raised early on Thursday morning. According to Mr Walsh, stock along six miles of the tributary was destroyed.

“We would like to see the full rigours of the law applied to whoever was responsible, but, at the moment, investigations appear to be inconclusive,” he said.

The polluted river runs from the Abbeyleix direction towards Durrow and into the Nore in Co Kilkenny.

Mr Walsh said the club’s work on cleaning the rivers and clearing the river banks led to amenity walkways in and around Durrow.