Thousands of fish wiped out by pollution in Wales

It is believed tens of thousands of fish and wildlife have been killed in a Welsh river following a pollution incident which has set the ecosystem back ten years, according to Wales Online. 

The incident took place on Saturday in the Llynfi River at Pontithel in Powys and has seen devastation spread across the habitat which has been unprecedented. Striking pictures of the scene shows thousands of dead fish floating on the water, including grayling, trout, Rhyacophila, bulheads, salmonids and brook lampreys.

Biologists and ecologists from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) have been at the site over the last couple of days dealing with the effects of the pollution, the cause of which is unknown at present.

Mark Roberts, secretary of the Gwent Angling Association, which owns part of the River Llynfi, said the impact of the pollution has been “devastating”.

He adds: “NRW has taken samples and are doing inspections. They have tried to locate the cause but that investigation is ongoing so we’re not speculating on who might be responsible.

“We are aware lots of invertebrates have been killed and we consider the fish kill estimate to be multiple tens of thousands.

“We have been working on our own part of the river and we believe the incident took place above the Pontithel bridge. The river was just starting to recover from the last incident in 2016 but it’s going to be at least 10 years to get to the point we were at last week.

“It’s destroyed the whole ecosystem, we do a lot of environmental work but now we will have otters left with nothing to eat, water voles won’t be able to eat the vegetation, kingfishers, herons and other fish-eating birds will also be effected.”

According to Wales Online, Natural Resources Wales said their investigation into the source of the pollution was still ongoing and were working to collect evidence from the site. 

“The pollution has had a terrible effect on the Afon Llynfi. We know that local people care deeply about the river and are very upset about the impact this has had on the fish population. We share that concern and getting to the root of the cause of this incident is our top priority,” says Caroline Moscrop, south Powys environment team leader for Natural Resources Wales.

“From our assessment, it’s clear that there has been a large fish-kill along the Llynfi. There has also been a significant effect on invertebrate life in the river. This is not acceptable and we are doing all we can to identify the source and we will take action when we confirm the origin of the pollution. 

“We take this very seriously and have had officers on site daily taking samples and assessing the impact. Our rivers are the lifeblood of Wales and we want to do all we can to protect them. With more people using the countryside, we encourage them to report any suspected pollution incidents to us via our website or by calling the dedicated incident reporting line on 0300 065 3000.

“Our next steps will be guided by the evidence we put together. We are committed to finding out what happened and to take any necessary steps to stop this from happening again.”