Dead fish not unexpected after restocking exercise

Following controversy around who was responsible for the restocking of the Rio Cobre, fishermen who ply their trade in the river are now expressing concern about floating dead fish from the Tilapia stock that was deposited at one of three spots on Friday.

Fisherfolk who spoke with The Gleaner alluded to seeing fry and fingerling floating in the river on Saturday at one of the spots where deposits were made one day before.

“Them come Friday and put the fish in the water and even before they left the fish dem start float up on the water, mi even take up two plastic keg and feed my dogs,” said Kevin Morrison, who plies his trade in the river.

Morrison said he believes the spot known as Pleasant Hill was not the ideal place to deposit the stock of fry and fingerling because it was not the main river source.

Two other fishermen interviewed gave similar accounts.

Meanwhile, Zahra Oliphant, principal director for the Fisheries Compliance, Licensing and Statistics Division, commenting on the report, was mindful that some of the fry and fingerling from the stock would not survive.

“Mortality would have been expected but to what extent we are now trying to determine. We have received the report and it has been referred to the relevant personnel for analysis,” Oliphant told The Gleaner.

She insisted that no official percentage of possibly mortality was given out on Friday at the restocking exercise because they could not have known.

Supervised by UC Rusal

The restocking exercise was supervised by bauxite company UC Rusal, which was ordered by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to finance the restocking of the Rio Cobre after the environmental watchdog found them culpable after the 2022 contamination of the river that resulted in a huge fish kill.

UC Rusal, which is currently fighting a 2019 negligence case that contributed to a similar fish kill, up until Friday when the company played the supervisory role, has failed to comply with NEPA’s order.

The bauxite company has denied the charges in the St Catherine Parish Court, where lawyers representing the entity have offered a no-case submission that lawyers representing NEPA have rebutted.

The judge is expected to hand down her ruling on September 15.

In the meantime, two other cases where UC Rusal was deemed responsible for causing chemical spills that totally wiped out the fish stock in the Rio Cobre, one in October of 2021 and the other in July 2022, both displacing several fishermen, are yet to be mentioned in court.

Kesonard Gordon, president of Friends of the Rio Cobre, is demanding that all the agencies involved in the Rio Cobre dilemma be brought to the table with the affected residents to discuss the way forward.

He criticised NEPA for not making public whether a test was done prior to the restocking exercise and insisted that tests conducted by the agency in May which have not being made public be released to the Jamaican people.