The Rivers Government has commenced investigations to unravel circumstances surrounding the sudden appearance of dead fishes along the shorelines of some coastal communities in the state.

The State Ministry of Environment, said samples of dead fishes have been taken to the Rivers State University Laboratory for analysis to identify the cause of death.

Confirming that thousands of fishes were seen along the rivers of Finima in Bonny Local Government Area and Oyorokoto in Andoni Local Government Area, Ministry sources, disclosed to Africa Update that the attention of the Ministry was drawn to the incident on Friday by King M. O. Dic-Isotu, Abah Ogwuile XIII of Unyengala Doni Town in Andoni LGA.

Meanwhile, the Honourable Commissioner for Environment, Dr Igbiks Tamuno, has called on the people living in the affected communities not to eat the dead fishes, as the ministry would carry out full scale investigation to ascertain the actual cause of the death.

Specifically, the dead fish were seen in Amariari, Lighthouse, River 7, Agaja, Uku-Mbi, Mbisu 1, Mbisu 2, and Ifoko communities in Bonny Local Government Area, and in Oyorokoto and other communities in Andoni Local Government Area.

You will recall that a team of young men from Bonny, had commenced investigations, in an attempt to unravel the story behind the dead fishes.

The team, made up of Godswill Jumbo, a journalist; Humphrey Buowari; Kelly Brown; and Kindness Brown, all executive members of Finima Youth Congress (FYC), had in their report, identified the specie of fish affected as croaker, popularly known as ‘Broke Marriage’ and called ‘Onah’ in Ibani dialect.

Their report said, “The fish were seen lying dead and littered along the shoreline from Lighthouse all the way to Ifoko on the fringe of the boundary between Bonny and Andoni LGA. The fish were also sighted dead and floating on the sea and being washed ashore by waves.”

They also said, “We also received and verified reports that several communities along the Atlantic shoreline across the area referred to as the Gulf of Guinea is affected too. These include Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States in Nigeria.

“Within 2 nautical miles from Lighthouse the fish were all dead but beyond that and as far as the Fairway Buoy many of the fishes were sighted alive only to die later; on the body of the fish, swellings were sighted looking like a lesion or boil. When pricked something like pus would be excreting from it; the fish begins to rotten from the tail as against the head.

“The fish begins to turn green when it begins to get rotten; when spread out on the fire to dry, unlike normal fish, these do not thoroughly dry up, instead they would disintegrate or scatter.”