DANGEROUS TO FISH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1939, Page 3

DANGEROUS TO FISH

POISONOUS SHEEP DIP. DISCHARGE INTO RIVER. The Association of Scottish District Salmon Fishery Boards draws the attention of farmers to the dangers to fish and animal life of careless handling of sheep dip, washing of manure bags, and implements used for spraying potato crops. The effect of arsenical dips on fish and animal life, states the Association, is too well known to require reiteration, but it is not perhaps so universally understood that the so called “non-poisonous” dips are equally fatal to fish life, though noninjurious to farming stock. The wide-spread evil of sheep tick has caused increased efforts on the part of sheep dip manufacturers to produce dips which will deal effectively with this menace, and a certain measure of success has been achieved. Recognising the harmful effect of dip on fish, the best firms print special notices on their non-poisonous dip labels in the following terms: —“Sheep Dip Wash is dangerous to fish and animal life, and every care must be taken to prevent the waste dip from draining into streams, ponds, or lakes.”

The manufacturers recommend that the dip be allowed to percolate through two feet of soil before entering the stream. An equally satisfactory method of disposal is by draining the dip into a small pit filled with stones and gravel, from which the dip percolates slowly away. It has been discovered during the past year or so that it is fatal to fish life to wash the implements used for spraying potatoes in streams and waters draining into streams. The entire stock of trout was wiped out in a small stream over a distance of several miles by the indiscriminate washing of the .sprayer in the stream.