Ulster Unionist Environment spokesperson, Tom Elliott MLA, is demanding answers on how ESB traps at the Ballyshannon Power Station has resulted in a reported major fish kill of over 300,000 young eels.
Tom said:
"This obvious failure has resulted with hundreds of thousands of critically endangered elvers dead, due to them being starved of oxygen in the holding tanks. I suggest there must be a serious failure or negligence on behalf of those who are supposed to manage this process. There have been indications for years that the Ballyshannon Power station has a very damaging effect on not only the eel population, but also the salmon stocks.
"I find it even more appalling that in Fermanagh, eel fishermen have been banned from catching eels over the past number of years in order to replenish stocks, and in one single incident hundreds of thousands of eels have been wiped out.
"I shall be demanding a full investigation into this incident to establish from ESB and others how this incident has happened. We must also know what steps they propose to take to re-stock Lough Erne with the elvers that have been lost in this incident.
"I have been lobbying for years that the small number of Fermanagh Eel fishermen should be allowed to fish for Eels and help manage the stocks. I ask the question if it is the eel fishermen, or such an incident as this, that has the most damaging effect on the eel population in Lough Erne?"