A ‘DEAD RIVER’
FISH WIPE-OUT HAS SET THE INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED ARAGLIN RIVER BACK DECADES
IT will take ‘years upon years’ to return the Araglen river in Kiskeam to a healthy state after raw slurry wiped out over 1,000 fish.
That was the grim view of Tom Anketell of the Duhallow Angling Centre of Excellence this week following the devastating fish kill.
It is estimated that the environmental distaster killed up to 1,200 fish with the majority found over a 2km stretch of water near the village.
It’s believed raw slurry caused the massive loss which included salmon, wild brown trout, eel and stickleback. Mr Anketell said over the last four years, his organisation has brought hundreds of angling tourists to the river because of its wild brown trout. “In other countries, the rivers are re-stocked but not so in Ireland. It meant that the Araglen river was paradise for anglers from America, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, France and Scotland,” he said.
THE 130 members of the Duhallow Angling Centre of Excellence along with the hundreds of overseas tourists who came specifically to Kiskeam to fish for wild brown trout have now all been left with a “dead river.”
That was the stark view this week of Boherbue native, Tom Anketell, who is the co-ordinator of the Duhallow Angling Centre of Excellence and who is also the National Secretary of the Trout Angling Federation of Ireland.
The 17.5-mile Owentaraglin, known locally as the Araglin river, suffered a devastating environmental blow last week when at least 1,200 dead fish were found over a 2km stretch of water near the village.
Mr Anketell told The Corkman that it “will take years upon years to bring the Araglin back to what it was.” It is understood a discharge of raw slurry caused the massive loss of fish which included salmon, brown tout, eel and stickleback. In addition, the fish kill will also greatly impact on the wider aquatic habitant – which will also have severe implications for the fish population into the future.
“This really is devastating. I have been fishing for over 50 years and it is my life. It isn’t just the 1,200 fish kill which is upsetting, but it is in fact, much worse than that, as each salmon would have at least spawned millions of eggs – and they too are wiped out. There’s an entire life cycle lost, ” he said.
“Salmon would have come to the Araglin to spawn and gone out to sea and come back again – that cycle of nature will also be affected,” he said.
“We really succeeded in being a major tourist attraction for the area. We have brought hundreds of tourists to the Araglin, primarily because of the natural and wild brown trout. In other countries, rivers are re-stocked but not in Ireland. It meant that the Araglin river was paradise for anglers from America, Germany, Sweden, Belgium , France and Scotland,” he said.
He said over the last four years, eight Belgian anglers have been arriving back to the Araglin river because of the wild brown trout. “This was a major attraction for these fishermen as they saw the beauty of the river and what it had. They really couldn’t believe that they could fish for wild brown trout. This year now, we will have to look at the six to seven other rivers in Duhallow for them to fish.”
Mr Anketell said during the late 1970s there were some minor fish kills, but the last major fish kill in the Araglin was in 1980s when agricultural slurry wiped out fish stock on the river.
When raw slurry finds its way into a river, it depletes the oxygen for fish – resulting in their death. This can be particularly so if water levels are low as the raw effluent is at a dangerous high volume.
Mr Anketell said it has taken over 30 years to get the river right again but now he said anglers are left with “a dead river.”