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Fish deaths baffle experts

25/07/2008

British Waterways and the Environment Agency are in Manchester trying to determine what has killed thousands of fish in Rochdale Canal.

Between last Saturday and Wednesday, 4,000 roach, perch and pike were discovered between Bradgate and Failsworth near Oldham.

More than 12,000 fish have been found dead in the past 24 hours.

Pollution specialists from the agency are taking samples of the water for analysis and some of the fish are being tested.

It is thought the fish may have died last Saturday but that it has taken a few days for them to surface.

An Environment Agency spokesman told the BBC: "We do not yet know the cause or the source of pollution as there was not any evidence of odour, substance or other material in the canal."

Rochdale Canal runs for 32 miles across the Pennines from the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield Basin in Manchester to Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire.