Suspended solids and fisheries

Abstract

The effect of suspended solids on freshwater fish is illustrated from field and laboratory studies on china-clay wastes together with work on the effects of other chemically inert material, wood fibre, ferric hydroxide, and oxidizable organic solids, and mention is made of work in the marine environment. Tentative water quality criteria formulated by the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission for inert suspended solids and inland fisheries are outlined and compared with conditions prevailing in rivers in the United Kingdom. Reference is made to current work by the Water Pollution Research Laboratory on the role of organic suspended matter in the presence of soluble poisons and on the effect of hydraulic conditions on the settlement and oxidizability of suspended solids from sewage effluent.