Blackwater fish kill: Angling clubs 'appalled' at report's failure to find culprit

Multi-agency taskforce's failure to identify the cause of the State’s biggest fish kill described as 'shocking and unacceptable' 

The River Blackwater in Mallow, Co Cork. A fishery operator upstream at Castletownroche said: 'I had two experienced anglers test fish it for a full day. They didn’t even get a bite.' Picture: Dan Linehan

A multi-agency taskforce’s failure to identify a culprit for the State’s biggest fish kill has been described as “shocking and unacceptable”.

The taskforce's 102-page report said that, despite extensive testing, no evidence of disease, pesticides, heavy metals, or chemicals were detected in samples taken from some of the 40,000 killed in the River Blackwater in Co Cork.