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PRELIMINARY findings of an investigation into why hundreds—possibly thousands—of dead catfish washed up on the Ottawa River suggest a waterborne bacterial fish disease is the cause, the Ministry of Natural Resources said yesterday.
Columnaris is a known bacteria found in aquatic ecosystems. Conditions such as warm water or stressed fish, can contribute to catfish becoming diseased and dying.
The bacterial disease is not transferable to humans.
Ministry spokesman, Doug Skeggs stressed the findings are “very preliminary results.”
“This is not a definitive answer,” he said. “We have one sample from one fish that this disease is present.”
Shoreline residents started reporting dead fish soon after the Civic holiday. In Constance Bay, sightings started on Monday and Meredith Brown, of Ottawa River Keepers, has had more than 100 calls and e-mails of dead fish spotted from Bonnechere to Westboro.
Crews yesterday scaled back their investigation to 25 km of shoreline along the Ottawa River, from Castleford to Chats Falls. They will continue to sample fish and collect live fish, as well as look at the small bug populations by the water.
Although dead fish were found up stream from Castleford and downstream of Chats Falls, it appears the fish died upstream and drifted down.
Ottawa beaches remained open yesterday, except for Petrie Island because of high E. coli counts, not because of the fish dieoff.
Drinking water in Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew is safe to drink, however, people are still being advised not to eat river fish.
Brown was concerned that the heavy rainfall on Aug. 2 that hit the Ottawa Valley particularly hard may have overwhelmed treatment plants in some municipalities, causing sewage and storm water spills into the river.
The Ministry of Environment, which is also investigating, said there appears to be no manmade contaminants in the river.
Spokeswoman Jackie Theoret said Renfrew, Cobden, Arnprior and Pembroke, which are all near the Ottawa River, reported normal operations.
It’s believed the large number of dead catfish won’t affect the river’s ecosystem. Once findings are conclusive, an evaluation will take place to see what can be done to prevent a reccurence of this unusual catfish die-off.
Ottawa Sun