A number of small fish died during works on the Clypse reservoir, an FoI has received.
The incident occurred on October 20 while Manx Utilities was pumping out the last water from the nearly drained reservoir to facilitate an essential valve replacement.
An internal incident report states that at that point “water was cloudy with all the disturbed sediments causing death to smaller fish.”
The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture was informed and attended the site where its fisheries team “rescued the live larger in size fish and took it off site,” but said that “smaller fish could not have been rescued”.
Viable
In a Freedom of Information response, Manx Utilities explained that draining was the only viable option for the work, which is only undertaken every 20 years.
Planning with DEFA began in June 2025, with stocking ceased in July and angling prohibited from late August.
The MUA said it was anticipated that “the majority of the remaining fish would migrate from Clypse to the adjacent Kerrowdhoo Impounding Reservoir”.
A line manager commented in the report: “We have spoken to DEFA and they concur that nothing else could have been done to save the last few fish.”