A TON OF DEAD FISH FOUND IN THE RIVER SEGURA

More than a ton of dead fish were found floating in the River Segura on Monday, close to the mouth of the river at Guardamar.

Conservationists are still unclear as to the cause of death but a spokesman said that it is likely to be one of two things, either as a result of the high temperatures in recent days which reduces the oxygen in the water and produces asphyxiation or due to the increasing use of agricultural pesticides in the region.

The fish, mainly carp and mullet, were discovered by the Hydrographic Confederation of Segura (CHS). The conservation group Friends of Wetlands in Southern Alicante (AHSA) said that this event coincides with another similar tragedy which occurred at the same time last year which was apparently caused by the accidental spillage of pesticides.

President of the association, Sergio Arroyo, believes that CHS should act more forcefully to prevent a recurrence of events like this that "endanger the fragile recovery of the battered Segura River."

He said that the likely cause could be from the many drainage systems that that collect the filtered water from neighbouring garden plots and allotments following watering along the river as it runs through San Fulgencio, Dolores, Guardamar and Rojales.

The gardens are regularly treated with pesticides and other chemicals which are simply being run off the land into the water.

Sources for the CHS said that an operation has now been launched to remove the dead fish and research in order to determine the reason for the deaths.

AHSA first sounded the alarm in the early hours of Monday morning when several of its members were monitoring birds as part of the Rivers Volunteer program funded by the Ministry of Environment. The dead fish were observed in the stretch of the old course of the river that runs alongside a campsite and where hundreds of different drainage systems feed into the river as is runs into the town of Guardamar del Segura.