Residents have been scratching their heads about why hundreds of fish died in the Secunda Duck Pond and other ponds in Secunda.
A local angler, Dezzy Fourie, said he and fellow anglers saved about 300 fish from the duck pond and took them to the Unicor Dam on October 23.
“It was so sad for me to see suffocating fish swimming close to the surface. We worked in two teams to take the fish out of the water and to transport them to the other dam,” said Fourie.
Fourie said they saved fish of different species, except for catfish because they did not see any of these close to the water’s surface.
“Catfish is a tough fish. They can survive and live in the mud. They will probably survive there at the duck pond.”
According to residents, the fish began dying shortly after the big hail storm hit Secunda on October 20.
Fourie said while the anglers were rescuing the fish that were still alive, some passersby wanted to rake the dead fish home to eat.
“I stopped them because we do not know what caused the fish to die. It might have been water pollution or chemical spill or something like that.”
Fourie recalled a similar incident of fish dying in the Hammerkop Dam two years ago. He and a few fellow anglers relocated the fish to the duck pond.
Residents speculated widely if the fish deaths might be because of water pollution, sewage that sometimes flows into the dams, or the overgrown water hyacinths that leave the fish with too little oxygen.
Others think it might have something to do with the hail storm since the fish began dying soon afterwards.
Several people reported seeing an oil layer on top of the water. Mariaan Chamberlain, DA Clr asked the municipality to test the water. They already took monsters, but the results are still outstanding. According to Chamberlain, sewage spillages the last few weeks near the duck pond were quickly attended to.
A group known as the ‘Groenstrook Gabbas’ often remove the water hyacinths from the waterways. This plant invaded the duck pond and the blooms spread rapidly. At one stage, it was believed the hyacinths affected the oxygen levels in the water.
According to research, oxygen levels in the water are also greatly affected during hail storms, causing fish to swim to the surface where oxygen levels are higher and often resulting in fish dying.
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