The massive fish pestilence that occurred last October at one of the lakes of the Ladyzhyn Reservoir in Vinnytsia Oblast has nothing to do with the activities of other companies located nearby. This was also recognized by the head of the fish farming company, Oleksandr Korkh. The head of the Union of Ecologists of Ukraine, Viktor Bulgakov, said this in an exclusive commentary to UNN.
According to Viktor Bulgakov, research conducted jointly with the Central Geophysical Observatory showed that the economic activities of nearby enterprises could not have led to a massive fish kill in the lake in the village of Stepashky.
"There is a certain objective situation that basically looks like this: general water use, water intake issues, and then the emergence of certain effluents and water circulation that are not related to external industrial enterprises.
I personally went to the site, we conducted a survey and took samples for analysis. Accordingly, there are no complicated or obvious violations of the impact on the environment. In fact, Korch himself confirmed that there is no connection - natural or artificial. Accordingly, there are no impacts related to other enterprises," said Viktor Bulgakov.
As for the causes of the massive pestilence, the expert said that poor quality food could have caused the death of the fish.
"When aquaculture is growing, there may be a problem with nutrition. Also, fish fed to other fish can be contaminated. That is, there are certain infections of the feed itself after defrosting. This situation requires further study," added Viktor Bulgakov.
Context
On October 3, 2023, a massive fish pestilence occurred on the lake of the Ladyzhyn Reservoir in the village of Stepashky, Vinnytsia region.
According to Oleksandr Korkh, head of the First Aquaproduction Company LLC, three thousand sturgeon and beluga sturgeon with a total weight of nine tons died.
At the same time, Korch said that the cause of the pestilence was the ingress of hazardous chemicals into the water.
His version was almost immediately questioned by the State Environmental Inspectorate in Vinnytsia Oblast, which took water samples in the lake. The results of the examination showed that the indicators of ammonium nitrogen, nitrite ions, phosphates, sulfates, and chlorite ions were within the permissible range.
According to the information UNN received from its own sources at the time, the fish were insured, and therefore could have been deliberately fed low-quality food.