Fish kill in Karridene river ‘due to salinity’

Hundreds of fish littered Karridene beach on Thursday morning, 6 April, as the changing tides stranded salt water fish in the opened river mouth.

Cllr Andre Beetge said the sea water at high tide had breached the Msimbazi River, bringing with it many young fish which were too weak to survive the change in salinity come low tide.

“We arrived at the beach in the morning to find the salt water fish trapped behind the rocks in the pools of water,” said Cllr Andre Beetge. “We gather that the previous night’s high tide had breached the Msimbazi River, bringing with it a school of salt water fish.”

Andre explained that the salt water fish were practically jumping out of the pools they were stranded in, in an attempt to get oxygen and survive when the tide went out again.

A sudden change in wind brought in the tide that was previously so low. The salt water washed over the pools formed in the sand and allowed passage for the salt water fish back out to the ocean. However, the smaller, weaker fish didn’t didn’t survive the low salinity of the pools and died. The beach was left scattered with the small salt water fish, which were no bigger than 6cm in length.

“The municipality is having the water tested, however, I don’t believe it was any more than the low salinity levels the small salt water fish couldn’t survive,” said Andre. “All fresh water prawns, crabs, tilapia and other creatures in the Msimbazi River were unharmed.”

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