The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has commenced investigation to ascertain the cause of a fish kill in the Bridgeport area of Portmore, St. Catherine.
The Agency said its pollution response team was immediately deployed to the area after receiving reports at approximately 12 PM yesterday. The team conducted a joint investigation with the National Fisheries Authority.
“While the investigation so far has confirmed the fish kill, at this point, we are yet to determine the cause/s as we are awaiting laboratory test results on water quality and fish samples collected,” NEPA stated in a press release on Thursday.
The area of concern spanned the Dawkins Pond in the vicinity of Edgewater and extended to Forum Beach. Samples of the seawater and the fish were collected and have been sent for testing.
Residents reported seeing a large number of dead fish floating in the sea, stretching from the coast from Egde Water to Port Henderson Road, most commonly referred to as “back road”.
One fish vendor at the Forum Fishing Village in Portmore, St Catherine told Freedom Come Rain that he saw the fish carcasses floating yesterday afternoon. He said he has been working in the area for over seven years but it was the first time he was witnessing such an occurrence. He confirmed that a team from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MOAF) was present earlier in the day conducting an investigation. The National Fisheries Authority comes under the MOAF.
Mayor of Portmore, Leon Thomas, said he made contact with NEPA, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health and Wellness to ascertain the reason for the fish kill early Thursday morning.
“We just need to know what’s happening and why the fishes died. That’s our concern. We don’t know. We await the response to find out, because we don’t know what killed them,” said the mayor when he was contacted by Freedom Come Rain earlier Thursday.
NEPA said its team went back out today and where joined by National Fisheries Authority and the Jamaica Constabulary Marine Police along with assistant from the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard as they continue their investigation.
This is the second case of a fish kill being investigated by NEPA in recent times. Residents of Kent Village in St. Catherine reported observing dead fish on the Rio Cobre river bank in July.