SEPA : Press Statement 2003

Statement on behalf of the organisations mentioned below.

SEPA, Scottish Water, SNH, FRS Marine Laboratory and The Dee Salmon District Fisheries Board met today to discuss fish deaths in the lower Dee over the last week. Disease and pollution do not appear, so far, to be the cause of the deaths. The meeting agreed that the high temperatures are most likely to be the cause of stress and death. The low river flows have made this situation worse and have prevented fish migrating upstream.

The meeting discussed possible short-term measures to alleviate the situation but only lower temperatures and significant rainfall are likely to make any major difference. We are already seeing an improvement, through lower temperatures in the last few days.

The organisations involved will continue to monitor the situation and to work with each other, and further tests are ongoing. They will also meet again once more information is available and will work on long-term measures through the Dee Catchment Management Plan.

We would like to thank those anglers who have voluntarily stopped fishing. We also want to advise the public that they should not take any dead fish for either human or animal consumption.

ENDS

Contact
Stewart Argo, public relations officer - 01224 248338, 07799 477972