Last Gasp

As I headed upstream from Lover’s Leap toward the River Blackwater Beach, I noticed a change. There were fewer lifeless fish on the riverbed now, and the first signs of the living, dying, and desperate.

I saw trout with clouded eyes, their bodies veiled in a milky-grey film. Some floated upside down near the surface, barely moving. Others rose from the bottom in spasms of effort, only to sink back down again, spent.

These once beautiful creatures should have been freckled with vibrant red spots against sleek, silvery-brown bodies. They should have been darting through the current with speed, agility, and grace.

Instead, I watched their sickness, their distress, their final moments. Grief weighed on me. Anger too at what was, almost certainly, the work of human negligence.


#fish #fishkill #blackwater #mallow #munster #freshwater #grief #death #browntrout #ireland