Open Sores On Fish In The Severn; Gee, I Wonder If Average Of 48 Sewage Dishcharges/Day Might Be Connected?

Phil O’Callaghan, an angler, noticed the blisters on the first day of the season as he fished the Severn at Bicton Heath, north-west of Shrewsbury, this summer. “I have seen these sores in person and they look really nasty. “I am not a scientist, I am just someone who has spent my life on the river, as an angler, a canoeist and a swimmer. I have seen it change for the worse; the river doesn’t clear any more, you cannot see the gravel, there is no weed, and at the near margins the bottom is covered in a horrible, black, smelly silt. These sores are just the latest thing we are seeing, and they are another cause for serious concern.”

O’Callaghan is one of an army of anglers, swimmers and river lovers who are working together in an attempt to stop the decline of the Severn. They have seen the devastating decline of the neighbouring Wye and they are trying to stop the same fate happening to the Severn as it, like the Wye, is subjected to excessive nutrient pollution from intensive poultry farming and record levels of raw sewage discharges from Severn Trent facilities.

Over the last two years, O’Callaghan has joined 68 other anglers along the river who dedicate hundreds of hours to monitoring the water. They have taken more than 970 samples from 70 sites to record phosphate, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, ammonia and temperature, which they send to Bristol University for analysis. Images of the sores on fish have been sent to the Environment Agency.

EDIT

Thirty-one areas, or almost 60%, had a mean average for nitrate exceeding 5ppm (parts per million) – considered the acceptable upper limit – an increase from 35% in 2022-23. High levels of phosphate and nitrate pollute rivers. This triggers eutrophication, where the excessive plant and algal growth creates high levels of bacteria which reduces oxygen levels and kills plants and wildlife. Sewage pollution and agricultural runoff are both causes, their impacts varying from urban to rural areas. On the Severn, sewage pollution has soared. In the three years to 2023, there were 53,072 discharges of raw sewage into the river, more than 48 each day, according to data compiled by the trust. Their duration was 429,365 hours, more than 392 hours a day.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/19/the-sores-on-the-fish-are-nasty-whats-behind-the-changes-in-the-severn-river