POLLUTION incidents on the North's waterways remained at a high level last year, and the regional fishery authority said the level of fines being imposed for such incidents is too low.
Staff of the Fisheries Conservancy Board for Northern Ireland investigated 437 pollution incidents last year. Agriculture accounted for 65 per cent of these, while pollution from industry and sewage treatment works accounted for most of the other incidents.
The board recorded 36 fish kills during 1995. The most serious, in the River Bush, Co Antrim, in which hundreds of adult salmon died, was caused by a discharge from Bushmills Distillery.
The chief executive of the board said that 39 incidents attributed to the Department of the Environment's Water Executive could not be pursued through the courts because of Crown immunity. Ten of these led directly to fish kills.
On licensed fishing, the board reports a mixed year. While anglers generally reported good takes across the North, there was "a sad and decreasing number of rod caught salmon".