Many dead fish in the river steinach: criminal police investigates
"The dilemma has actually been going on all summer. The water is brown, stinks and has alternating brown or white foam.", reports heiko muller, resident of neumuhle. He himself has taken samples of the water, because he has often been upset about the brown water. And the glasses can no longer be cleaned by normal spooling, denounces muller.
Now the situation has come to a dramatic head: suddenly hundreds of fish have died in the river steinach. Heiko muller has therefore decided to call in the police.
Experts on site
Andrea kunzel and konrad schrufer are on site and are taking a close look at which parts of the steinach are affected. What is certain now is that the dead fish are located between kleinrehmuhle, neumuhle, waffenhammer. The entire three-kilometer area up to the steinachklamm gorge is affected. The schneidmuhle and parts further down seem to have been spared from the catastrophe. At least no dead fish has been found in this area yet.
Walkers are surprised to see that the dead fish are not – as usual – swimming with their bellies upwards, but are lying on the bottom – some with burst bellies. "That the fish sink first happens again and again. Putrefactive gases then form in the abdomen, and this can then cause the abdomen to burst and ensure that they only reappear later", veterinarian andreas koller sees nothing unusual in this fact.
Search for cause
"The lower nature conservation authority is involved", confirms the veterinarian from kulmbach. "We will check whether it was an infection or whether the fish deaths were caused by contamination, for example. But the investigation is still ongoing. We must first evaluate the samples and can not yet say anything about it", koller explains. Only when the cause is known, it can be decided whether the fish must be removed from the river or whether nature is allowed free rein and they simply decompose, says the veterinarian.
Meanwhile, there are increasing indications that lime and other contaminants could be the cause of the fish kill. The criminal investigation. The evaluation of the samples will take several more days. And only then will there be clarity about the cause and the exact amount of damage.
