fishing and water activities prohibited until the end of January

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More than two months after the start of the unprecedented pollution episode, restrictions are still in force for the municipalities along the Loing canal. At the end of December 2024, the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne has decided toextend bans on the Loing canal until January 26, 2025.

Bans until January 26

This decision, ratified by a decree dated December 23concerns the section going from thelock number 8 at the height of Egreville up to the confluence of the canal with the Loing river in Nemours. “The consumption of all kinds of fish and shellfish fished on the Loing canal is prohibited, underlines the prefecture. Any non-motorized leisure water activity, particularly kayaking, on the canal is also prohibited.”

As a precautionary measure, state services strongly recommend against “watering pets and livestock” in the canal.

“I saw fishermen crying”

This order comes following very serious water pollution which led to the death of thousands of fish, from October 25, 2024. In the space of a week, nearly 3 tonnes of dead fish had been fished out of the Loing canal, near Bagneaux-sur-Loing, provoking the ire of local fishing associations and Claude Jamet, the first city councilor. “It’s a real ecological disaster,” he said at the time of the incident. I even saw fishermen crying.”

As for the victims, it mainly involved large fish that lived at the bottom of the river bed. “We found large carp weighing more than 20 kg, large catfish, pike and even large perch. These are fish that require much more oxygen than small ones,” then listed Franck Le Grand, president of the AAPPMAthe Nemours fishing association.

In recent weeks, the canal had been completely dried up to contain the pollution. An investigation is still underway to determine the exact causes of this ecological tragedy.

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