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High amount of ammonia killed fish: study

TUTICORIN: A study conducted by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has attributed the mass mortality of fish at the Karapad Bay here on February 14 to high amount of ammonia concentration in water.

Scientists belonging to the fisheries environment division of the institute have put the ammonia concentration in samples collected on that day at 2,159 micrograms per millilitre, higher than the permissible limit, official sources told The Hindu.

The scientists reckon that the ammonia would have entered the area either with the freshwater through the Koramballam creek, which drains out rainwater from the town into the bay, during the rain that lashed Tuticorin on February 14, or through direct discharge from any of the industrial units along the coast. Phosphate, nitrate and chlorophyll contents, too, were found marginally higher in the samples.

Samples of the dead fish would be taken to the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute at Kochi for test.

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