Fish found dead in Caerphilly County Borough river spark investigation

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) staff arrived on site at Nant Cylla, near Penpedairheol, within an hour of receiving a report of around 100 dead fish in the tributary.

Although there were no visible signs of pollution, officers launched an investigation to try and find a source and establish the cause of death, including taking water samples and dead fish to laboratory.

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The investigation continued throughout Sunday and Monday and officers confirmed the number of young and adult trout killed was close to 500, along a little under a kilometre stretch of the river.

The samples will now be analysed, and will inform NRW’s next course of action.

David Letellier, operations manager from NRW, said: “Protecting Wales fantastic rivers is incredibly important for us. As soon as we had reports on this incident our officers were on site to investigate.

(Almost 500 fish were found dead in Nant Cylla, a tributary of the River Rhymney. Picture: Natural Resources Wales)

“Unfortunately, final numbers of fish killed by this pollution is much higher than we initially thought and has had a devastating effect on local fish stocks.

“We believe we have found the source and we’ll consider what action to take next, including appropriate enforcement action against those responsible.

“We are incredibly grateful to those who reported this incident to us and encourage anyone to report signs of pollution to us on 03000 653000 so we can respond.”