With a large number of mortalities and an ongoing investigation by IFI and the Marine Institute it would suffice to say that to lose up to 900 adult salmon is a tragic outcome for this river. We await the outcome of the investigation but we are aware that it appears that the losses are primarily adult salmon. This may be related to oxygen demand as the river appears to be low over a prolonged period. Larger fish require higher levels of oxygen and large quantities in a relatively small area of a river can trigger stress and lead to secondary infections. Higher water may alleviate this but weakened fish may not survive even if distributed further upstream. There appears to be a rise in water over the past number of days and we will see if this alleviates the situation. While there are reports of a large run through the counter it is apparent that the loss of adult salmon at this scale can have consequences for spawning numbers and that other adult salmon may have a compromised survival chance through stress related secondary infections. We would certainly support an engineering solution to natural barriers if these are deemed to be partly responsible for the mortalities.
Ballisodare Atlantic Salmon Mortalities
