Sarthois fishermen who came to look for trout only found dead fish. They made this discovery this Saturday, March 19 in the Montreteaux stream, between La Ferté-Bernard and Saint-Aubin-des-Coudrais to the west. The local association for fishing and the protection of the aquatic environment was alerted: due to a strong smell of chlorine, she suspects bleach poaching.
“It is a method that is known, but not frequent, it is the first time that I can see it in our field of management“, explains Fabien Goutard, its president. “The bleach molecules attach themselves to the gills of the fish, so they are just asphyxiated, but remain safe to eatThey are then collected using a dip net. According to him, these practices were more common about ten years ago, especially in mountain streams.
“The whole food chain is dead”
The results are anyway devastating for the biodiversity of this watercourse. “All the aquatic fauna is dead, it goes from fish to invertebrates, it’s the whole food chain“, continues this fisherman. “The environment is sterile, it will take several years for the river to recover from this pollution. ” His association is in charge of protecting these environments and carries out actions to preserve the different fish populations.
“We have invested a lot of time and money in this waterway with restoration or development in favor of the aquatic environment“, loose Fabien Goutard. “Efforts shattered, there is a feeling of anger and disgust. It’s not like someone fishing one more trout or without a fishing license, it’s much worse.“He also contacted the French office for biodiversity, the policeman for environmental damage, which opened an investigation for water pollution.