Zeekoevlei residents were warned over the weekend not to eat any dead fish found in the area after the City was alerted to the appearance of thousands of dead carp, believed to have died of natural causes, Traveller24 reported on Friday.
News24 spoke to Councillor Johan van der Merwe, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Environmental and Spatial Planning, on Monday, who said: “Thus far, an estimated 15 tons, or 7 000 individual fish, have been removed in total.
“In all, it is estimated that 20 tons of carp have died.”
Van der Merwe said the City expects to remove the remaining five tons by the end of Tuesday, provided there were no further deaths.
Forensic analysis is currently being conducted by the State Veterinarian on the dead carp, but early signs show the fish may have died as a result of a koi herpes virus, which has plagued the city’s waters before.
“Fish kills [localised die-off of a population] often occur at this time of the year with the change of seasons when water levels are low and temperatures are high.
“Fish sometimes become stressed during breeding and they may pass on the infectious disease due to the grouping of large numbers of adult fish together,” Van der Merwe said.
Members of the public were still asked to steer clear of the fish, and not let their dogs come into contact with the carp.
Van der Merwe thanked the City staff involved in the removal job, which he described as a “very unpleasant job” due to the smell.
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