MYSTERY surrounds the death of some 10,000 coarse fish on Tyneside’s
The fish were recovered over a period of two days by EA staff, who were alerted by an angler.
EA scientists are taking samples from Killingworth lake as the numbers of dead fish rise.
Fisheries officers were called to the lake on Monday after a call from an angler who spotted some dead fish. Initial tests on the water appear to show nothing out of the ordinary other than slightly low oxygen levels and investigations are continuing.
Killingworth lake is a popular urban fishery often used as a venue for coaching young anglers and has seen a lot of improvement work recently, including a habitat creation project using recycled Christmas trees. The work was done in January and was designed to provide a good environment in which young fish can mature and hide from predators.
The dead fish include 6,000 roach, and 1,500 perch, bream and carp. Officers say there are about 2,500 more dead fish still to be recovered.
Graham Siddle, from the Environment Agency, said: “At the moment all I can say is that we’ve never seen anything that has had such a devastating but localised effect like this, so we’re asking for every test we can to get as much information as possible.”
An incident hotline number – 0800 807060 – has been set up and Mr Siddle has appealed for information.
