We can’t keep having those fish kills

We will step out onto a fairly thick limb here and suggest some sort of chemical poisoning was likely the cause of the fish kill reported Monday in the Little Miminegash River. Something fairly potent obviously moved through that stream and caused at least 1,000 trout as well as other fish to die. That’s only the number of fish that were found. Others would have been tugged from the riverbank by animals and birds, and some would have simply floated into oblivion. And that’s the scary part, the ones that go uncounted. If the fish all die, how, then, will we know something is wrong in our waterways? It’s sad, devastating really, that those events occur. Devastating for the environment, devastating for the fish and devastating for the farmers who invariably get fingers pointed at their industry any time one of those events occur. Farm practices have been identified as the cause of numerous fish kills around the province. Anytime there is a cloudburst during the summer months, people of this province, farmers included, hold their collective breath, wondering if, in just a few days time, they will be hearing about a fish kill somewhere. There was a heavy rainfall in the Brockton-Roseville area on Aug. 18. On Aug. 22 a watershed co-ordinator discovered fish floating in the Little Miminegash River. It could be a coincidence and, yet, we wonder. Maybe this event was not farm related. Whatever it was, it caused harm and it shouldn’t have happened. There have also been several anoxic events reported in Island rivers this year. Those events occur when oxygen gets depleted from the water, often because of decaying seaweed. If fish can’t swim out of the affected water, they die.

Nitrate overload is usually associated with anoxic events, because that overload causes the plant material to thrive. Then it matures and dies, taking the life out of the water in the process.

So here’s a hard fact: Fish kills and anoxic events are happening in Island waterways and they’re happening a lot. That has to stop. Here’s another hard fact: Farmers do a good job of feeding the world and generating employment. That’s good and noble. But farming practices and any other practices that negatively impact our environment must change. Yes, there are other things happening, too, like industrial activities and inadequate septic and sewer systems, even the vehicles we drive, that cause harm to the environment. A whole lot of little impacts can, through time, be as damaging as one large individual event. We need to change and the more little things we change the more leverage we will have to move mountains and restore health to our streams and our environment. The co-ordinator of another watershed group reported this summer finding less garbage than previous years during a beach sweep. That’s good. Lets do more.