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Diesel Pollution, Weymouth


chrisjpainter
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Two and a half weeks ago,  diesel found its way into a lake I pike fish in. It's an RSPB reserve just two minutes away from the centre of Weymouth. How much diesel's got in, we don't know but in the last couple of days more has come through. The Environment Agency and Fire Brigade did their best to barricade it (the fire brigade came back when it looked like it was failing). The pike have been absolutely hammered. We've probably taken 60 dead pike out, plus a few birds and some other fish species, but the pike have born the brunt of it. No one knows how it got in, but I doubt it was accidental. That part of the reserve's lost its apex predator and the pike fishing will be shot for a few years.

Some photos and video I've put together. So the moral of this story? Don't let diesel into the water system. The smell was indescribable by the third day and my yak had to have four deep cleans before the stench was gone! Unpleasant.

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So sad to see , I remember  about 30 years ago it happened on the river Tees in co Durham.  A forklift hit a diesel  tank in a quarry in Upper teesdale probably  40 miles of fish wipped out ,I walked the river bank on our club water some beautiful  fish laid there . 

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4 minutes ago, derbyduck said:

I'm surprised the RSPB have'nt got involed in finding out who as alowed this to happen !

Who?

Honestly, their sum total of help was 'you can use the bins.' It was the angling club that first reported it. It was the EA and fire brigade that did the barricading. It was then the angling club that did the fish removal. The RSPB didn't lift a finger. They didn't offer any logistic support, any tools, any boats. They didn't even put signs up to let people know we were on the water and what we were doing. This is their facebook post about it:

'Just a word of reassurance regarding a very recent pollution incident at our wonderful Radipole Lake. Diesel entered the water on the far side of the lake adjacent to Radipole Park Drive. This has come from a drain and is under investigation and being controlled by the Environment Agency. Fortunately, their officers attended very quickly and - while there has been some worrying damage to aquatic species - the unfortunate outflow is being minimised by the use of absorbent barrages and close monitoring continues. Thank you for your understanding. We are keeping a very close watch on how things develop and welcome your sightings.'

 
Not one mention of us at the angling club who'd done pretty horrid work removing dead, stinking fish from the nature reserve they claim to manage. They've not done any followup reports and have pointedly ignored any post asking precisely what it is the RSPB have been doing. That 'close monitoring' is being done by the EA and only when they're being contacted about it. Who's doing the contacting? Yup, the angling club. It's made us pretty sick to the core how little interest The RSPB have had.
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I just seen news of a fish kill near where I work, the three mile water in newtownabbey-belfast. Seems most fish kills I hear about happen around either silaging time, slurry spreading time or harvest time.

Idiots performing agricultural operations seem to be the culprits quite often. Be it youngsters not thinking and just emptying excess slurry into a river or spreading too near a water course. Or the case a few years ago in Comber, county down of a vegetable company "accidentally" leaking 125000 tones of vegetable washing water into a river.

With the amount of diesel that has gotten into that water course there must have been a leaking fuel tank or someone emptied a big barrel of diesel out deliberately.

Edited by Rob85
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RSPB will not thank you ,Your fishing is now gone for the time being, Hopefully you will get the fish back soon, (more twitchers might turn up worrying about any wildfowl in the area affected by the spill) but i dont think the RSPB want you to have any credit for your work

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