Massive Fish Kill following Thames Pollution incident

Media Release 06/06/2011

Reports have come into the Thames Anglers Conservancy of a major Tidal Thames Pollution incident on Monday.
Heavy rain over the last 24 hours have caused Thames Water to release raw sewage into the river from the Combined Sewage Overflows. Bubbler boats and hydrogen peroxide are being used to increase the oxygen levels.
TAC members have reported seeing may dead Roach, Dace, Bream, schooly Bass and big Flounder. At Blackfriars Bridge, condoms and other toilet waste has been seen on the outgoing tide.

No species were spared    

Dead Bream and Roach floating next to Human Faeces

   

Eye witness report from TAC member Steve Holmes at Barnes bridge :

'We've just got back – partly through getting dark, partly through being helpless in the scale of it.
We saved as many fish as we could with the zero equipment we had. We had to wade along the shore kicking up the water to oxygenate it and put back all the fish that had beached themselves, torpedoing them in to try to shock them into fighting.
We saw, when you include the fry, 50p size Flounders and Elvers literally thousands upon thousands of small fish gasping for air on the surface. Many bigger fish had beached themselves to breathe their last. Even eels were dieing up on the beach.
We also saw masses of Shrimp dying and even the Mitten Crabs, all part of the fish food chain.
Species found dead – Flounder, Roach, Dace, Bream, Eels, Perch, what we think are juvenile Bass and a small Pike, the first we've ever seen on the tidal.
Small Roach, Bream and Dace were hit hardest. Size wise, we saw very big Eels and big Roach struggling for oxygen
Cleanest river in Europe? Disgusting '

Dead silver fish and freshwater shrimp.  

 
The turn of the tide and daylight may reveal the full extent of this disaster but could be greater than the scale of 2004.

Notice to editors:

The Thames Anglers Conservancy is a free to join organization and is a consultative member of the Angling Trust for Thames between Staines and Dartford.
As a Thames Angling stakeholder, we are involved with many organizations including the Environment Agency, river user groups and local councils.
We are concerned with many aspects of the Thames including the threat of Hydropower, loss of fishing rights and pollution along with the positive aspects of promoting angling and its benefits.
For more information go to www.rivertac.org or email admin@rivertac.org
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