The large amount of dead fish washed ashore along the Atlantic Ocean’s coastline of some Niger Delta states in Nigeria is due to increased toxicity of the water bodies, the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has revealed.
The agency noted that the discharge of toxic materials into the Atlantic may have come from land as the wastes from domestic and industrial sources often emptied into the water body.
In April, NOSDRA had announced that it was coordinating a multi-agency investigation aimed at revealing the cause of the unusual fish deaths within the nation’s territorial waters.
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Idris Musa, the agency’s Director-General said that the increased toxicity was caused by pollution from heavy metals from industrial and domestic wastes.
“As earlier mentioned, the findings did not show hydrocarbons (crude oil) as the possible cause of the death of the fishes,” Musa said.
“In the course of the analyses, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon, Benzene, Toluene Ethylene and Xylene were within regulatory standard limits in water, sediments and fish tissue analyses.
“However, there were some heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium copper, zinc and iron that exceeded regulatory standard limits in the coastlines of the three states – Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers.”
Musa noted that the plausible causes could partially be attributable to other human related pollution activities which are probably land based.
He recommended that the country should pay more attention to the activities of those illegally carrying out fishing in our territorial waters to guard against possible dumping of wastes as well as unwanted aquatic species.
