Fears for young fish after pollution incident

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

The pollution was spotted this 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."

He said salmon numbers have been declining "rapidly" in the past two decades and pollution like this has "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."

The Loughs Agency and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs have been approached for comment.

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.