Fish kill response good but room for improvement
State agencies responded “quickly and appropriately” to a major fish kill incident in Cork last year, a new report has found.
The incident report examined the death of up to 40,000 fish in the river Blackwater in North Cork last August, the largest recorded fish kill incident in Ireland.
Carried out by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the report also identified opportunities where coordination and communication in response to the incident could have been improved.
The publication of the report was welcomed by Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries and marine, Timmy Dooley, who said it’s crucial the state learns from the incident.
He said: “The practical, forward-looking recommendations set out in the report provides a clear roadmap for action and improvement.
“Some recommendations can and are being progressed immediately, while others will require more detailed consideration and planning to ensure they are implemented in an effective and evidence-based way.”
Short term recommendations
Minister Dooley said recommendations including those aimed at strengthening how State agencies work together will be progressed in the short term.
To coordinate this, an Inter-Agency Protocol Group has been established by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and is expected to be completed before the end of Q1 2026. Minister Dooley said this single, agreed protocol for all agencies involved will ensure the relevant expertise, resources, and information are brought together quickly and will ensure consistency in how incidents are handled and communicated in the future.
Long term recommendations
The longer-term recommendations set out in the report include preventative measures such as research to predict high risk locations for fish kills, in conjunction with improving catchment resilience by reducing pressures, improving habitat quality and flows, and enhanced approaches to detection such as continuous real-time monitoring on major rivers.
There are already a number of existing monitoring systems in place, including the catchment monitoring network for the Burrishoole Catchment in county Mayo, and an assessment of those is needed to ensure that new measures will complement and enhance existing systems rather than duplicate or replace them.
Minister Dooley said his department is considering the potential to develop a pilot using the Blackwater catchment, to test, assess and evaluate the implementation of these recommendations in practice before considering a wider rollout.
He said community involvement would be a core consideration in developing such an approach.
Stakeholders
The minister also welcomed the JRC’s engagement with local stakeholders and the important role they played in raising the initial alarm.
He said: “This was a very distressing event for the local community. I particularly value the JRC’s engagement with local stakeholders and the objective way their perspectives are reflected in the report.
“It also highlights the important role that citizen science and public observation play in the protection of our environment.”
The report will now be considered in detail by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the other relevant agencies.
The report is available to read now via publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu.