Thousands of dead herring, mullet and catfish have been washing up along the shoreline of the Mosquito Creek over the past few days.
The dead fish started coming to shore late on Monday afternoon and president of the Debe to Penal Action Committee, Edward Moody, is now calling on the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) to investigate the cause of the fish kill.
The T&T Guardian visited the area yesterday and were met by the stench of thousands of rotting fish. Many curious passersby stopped to get a closer look as the rising tide sucked the carcasses towards the mouth of the Godineau River.
Moody, who did not hesitate to get his hands dirty, plucked several of the larger fish from the water. He said: “For the last 48 hours, we have been noticing hundreds of pelicans diving into the water and catching fish.
“What is happening...if you look out you will see the pelicans now, just sitting in the water, whether they were poisoned by the thousands of dead fish we are seeing here now, we do not know.
“We made reports to the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) and the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) and what we are requesting is that some testing of these fish be done to determine what actually killed them.”
While he said herring are easily killed, it’s the death of so many catfish that has him worried.
“Now if you watch, you will see the little herring dead. They die very easily but when you start to see the catfish dying by the dozens along the shore, you know something went wrong in this water somewhere.”
He said late on Tuesday and up to early yesterday morning, several unscrupulous fishermen were seen trawling in the area.
“The question is, are we going to sit by and allow fishermen... like we saw some men trawling out there just now...what are they catching and what are they selling?” he asked.
With a mouthful of questions, Moodie is calling on the IMA and the EMA to do the necessary to get to the root of the deaths. He asked: “What caused the problem? Did it start here? Did it come down the Oropouche River?
“We are asking the IMA to come in and do sampling. People in South Trinidad should know, be careful where you buy fish and where the fish came from because if the fish were poisoned by heavy metal or some kind of pesticide or something, it would move up the chain from whoever eats what.
“We want people to be aware of this and we want answers from the IMA. The EMA does not have boating equipment to go out there and catch the fish. The IMA is responsible for this and we are demanding answers.”He dismissed the suggestion that the dead fish were a result of overfishing, saying:
“The idea that it came up because a trawler caught bigger fish and threw these out to sea is wrong. No way so many fish would be caught by one trawler, so let us rule that out of the game here.”
One man who stopped off at the Godineau Bridge for some afternoon fishing was shocked to see the dead fish but he believes the problem did not originate at the creek.
“When I came here around noon, the water was clear and I threw my line in,” the man, who asked to identified only as Raj, said. “About half-an-hour later, I see all these fish start washing up closer and closer,” he added.
He said he still caught several small living fish, leaving him with this conclusion: “It can’t be because of something here or there would be no living fish at all so it looks like they came in with the tide.”
Efforts to contact the offices of the EMA and the IMA were unsuccessful yesterday.