Over 2000 fish found dead in Muff River near Eglinton

A large number of fish have been found dead in the Muff River near Eglinton village.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the Loughs Agency have launched an investigation.

Over 2,000 fish were killed due to pollution, according to NIEA, who sent a Water Quality inspector to the infected zone following the incident.

“Pollution causes serious harm to our environment and this fish kill is being treated as a major incident.

We need to send a clear message that pollution will not be tolerated, especially when it has such a harmful

impact on wildlife and our local area,” said a NIEA spokesperson.

The recent pollution will lead to complications for the fauna and flora from the river to recover and it

might take years depending on the gravity of the case.

“It'll be very difficult for that river to recover, it could take many years, particularly because there is quite

a spread of species of fish,” said Dean Blackwood, director of River Faughan Anglers.

Fish of all ages were found dead and this will bring uncertainty for next year's generation of juvenile fish.

“Quite worryingly, a lot of the adult fish returning to spawn on the river appear to have been killed before

they got to spawn," said Dean.

“So that means the whole lifecycle of the centroid that were there to spawn should be wiped out for quite

a number of years.

“I would like to think that there will be some sort of prosecution for what has happened. But very often,

unfortunately, the fines for these incidents are not very big."

A similar case happened in the Faughan River a few years ago and the fine given to the offender was too

low, according to Dean.

“We had a major fish kill in 2016 that killed over 4,000 fish,” said Dean about the Faughan River. “The

fine there was just over £3,000. So it's less than a pound for the death of a fish.”

“What we really need to do is stop this from happening. One of the ways that it can be stopped is if the

penalties are particularly high or severe.

“These kills are happening all the time right across Northern Ireland. The fact that there's very poor

regulation and very poor penalties for it has to be a factor and why these are not being prevented.”

Dean said that the offender should be forced to carry out environmental contribution work to help restore

the biodiversity of the infected area to avoid any future river pollution.