More Irwell Heartbreak As Pollution Strikes Again

Yet again…. we are sad to report that there has been another significant pollution incident on the River Irwell just days before the new coarse fishing season starts again on the 16th June.

Hundreds of dead fish were seen in the River upstream of Bury – with big wild brown trout to approximately 4lb in weight being observed floating belly up dead in the water.

Local angler Andrew Buttery reported the incident to the Environment Agency on Friday evening  – but it was too late in the evening for an EA officer to turn out. The Environment Agency did attended on Saturday morning – but by then the river was swollen by heavy rains and most of the evidence had washed away. Thankfully we have a comitted EA fisheries team in our area – they were out again on Sunday afternoon looking for evidence, and have been in touch with us to discuss the information that local anglers have. They will be out on the river again 1st thing Monday morning looking for a potential pollution source. Lets hope they find the culprit and prosecute.

See pictures below

In recent months there have been numerous foaming incidents on the River Irwell – many of them being reported late on a Friday afternoon – there appears to be a theme.

Over the past 3 years – the River has taken a real hammering – pollution from the Tesco fuel spill at Haslingden, never identified pollution that killed all the Invertebrates over a 30 mile section, pollution from an oil company, the regular Friday foaming incidents, and now this latest devastating fish kill.

How the poor old Irwell suffers

Anglers, and other river lovers need to be vigilant, ALL angling clubs need to communicate with each other better and we would love to see a much better network of “River Guardians” working with the Mersey Rivers Trust to keep a better watch on the river, monitoring invertebrate and fish populations… creating a network of people to locate sources of pollution and be eyes and ears on the ground for the EA. In particular we need people from the Helmshore, Irwell Vale, Rossendale area. If you are interested in joining our network of “River Guardians” please contact admin@salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk

Its our river – we need to work better together to protect it from those who don’t care.

Irwell Pollution June 2019

Irwell Pollution June 2019