Pesticides probable cause of most P.E.I. fish kills, provincial data shows

Since the summer of 2000, the P.E.I. government has recorded 29 fish kills on the Island.

The P.E.I. government information page on fish kills notes that fish kills can occur for natural reasons or from activities by people.

Of the 29 fish kills listed since 2000, none were found to have been caused by natural events. Pesticides are listed as the probable cause in 21 of those cases, with four still underinvestigation. The remaining four are undetermined. Chlorothalonil, a fungicide, was found in 17 incidents.

Fish kills with pesticides as the cause most often occur following a heavy rain, which can wash pesticides off fields and into streams.

All but two of the fish kills happened in July and August, with two thirds of them happening in July.

• July: 19.
• August: 8.
• September: 1.
• October: 1.

The earliest in the year a fish kill has been reported was in the Trout River (Barclay Brook) in 2012 on July 5. The latest was just this year, in Hyde Creek in Cornwall on Oct. 10.

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