Oxfordshire fish kill remains a mystery PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:29

TESTS carried out by the UK Environment Agency as to what caused 10,000 fish to die at the River Thames near Farmoor have revealed they did not die as a result of pollution or disease.

The perch and ruffe were found near the Thames Water intake at Farmoor Reservoir on Thursday, November 12.


Tom Sherwood, an Environment Agency fisheries officer, said: “These types of mystery deaths are quite rare but do happen from time to time. What we do know is that this was not as a result of pollution or disease.”


Testing of water samples has revealed that no pollutants were present and fears that the mortality was as a result of disease which decimated perch stocks nationally in the 1960s and 1970s have now been allayed. Unfortunately, it is still not entirely clear as to the exact reasons why the fish mortality occurred.