Last update - 00:00 13/03/2007
Authorities accused of hiding facts about Kinneret fish poisoning
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
The authorities are concealing from the public that fish in Lake Kinneret have been poisoned, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) asserts.
Nir Papai, in charge of the beaches and sea department at SPNI contacted the health and agriculture ministries as well as the Water Commission on the matter on Monday.
On Thursday, two persons were arrested on suspicion of poisoning the fish, as reported in Haaretz.
The two were arrested by inspectors of the Fisheries and Naval Policing department of the Kinneret Administration. Both are fishermen, and were caught with fish that are believed to be poisoned.
According to Uri Shor, the spokesman for the Water Commission, the results of the lab work on the fish, received on Monday, confirmed suspicions that an illegal substance was used.
"As a result of the law enforcement operation we have prevented the sale of the fish on the market," Shor said. "Even when there is a case of poisoning, it is difficult to find evidence because the poison is dissolved in water," he adds.
Papai, while welcoming the action of the authorities wrote, "The fact that the authorities have opted to suppress the issue is unacceptable and prevents the public from having this information."
"We can assume that not all the fish that were poisoned were caught by the inspectors and there is a fair chance that some of them reached the markets," he wrote to the authorities.
"In addition, poisonous materials may threaten the water quality of Lake Kinneret and damage the sensitive ecosystem of the lake," he added.
Papai notes that the use of poison in fishing is not a new phenomenon, and warns against a policy of withholding such information, and thus potentially endangering a public unaware of the threat.
A number of witnesses reported dead fish in a number of spots in the northern Lake Kinneret, Haaretz reported recently.
Haim Anjouni, in charge of fisheries at the Agriculture Ministry, confirmed that reports of dead fish have been received. "It is uncertain whether those are instances involving poisoned fish," he said.