Fears for 'hundreds' of young fish after pollution incident

Anglers fear "hundreds" of young salmon may have been killed in a pollution incident on a tributary of the Derg River in County Tyrone.

The pollution was spotted on Wednesday morning at Tievenny Burn between Ardstraw and Victoria Bridge.

Local anglers say it is a short distance upstream from where drinking water is abstracted.

It is understood officials from the Loughs Agency have been at the scene.

Brendan Winters, a fisherman from Sion Mills and a member of the Foyle Association of Salmon and Trout Anglers, is helping to survey the river for dead fish.

He called for tougher penalties and warned that spills like this may pose a public health risk.

Winters said the pollution had come at a particularly sensitive time for the young salmon in the river.

"We have our smolts, which is the juvenile salmon, getting ready to go back out to sea, so they're going through a very sensitive change and they're very susceptible to this type of pollution.

"Now, how much of an effect it has on these fish, we'll not know the fallout of that. until the next few hours, days.

"But I would imagine at the source there coming down, there will be an effect on not just fish, but all aquatic insects and vertebrates and stuff."

Winters said salmon numbers had been declining "rapidly" in the past two decades and pollution like this had "the potential to wipe out" salmon stocks on the River Mourne.

"The one thing we can do is try and look after them when they're in the river, and the potential to wipe out next year's growth as a result of killing these smolts is massive."

In a statement, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) said that at 09:30 BST on Wednesday, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) received "a report of a significant effluent spillage to the River Derg".

It added that as the incident occurred within the Foyle catchment area, the Loughs Agency are leading the investigation, with support provided by the NIEA.

The Loughs Agency said it had been alerted to a pollution incident on the Derg River and that its fishery officers are "currently investigating in collaboration with the relevant authorities".

The Derg River is one of the main rivers across County Tyrone, flowing from Lough Derg on the Donegal/Fermanagh border into the Strule and then the Mourne River.

It is a key river for spawning salmon and noted for its brown trout and sea trout populations as well.