amount of fish last month, it has emerged.

A Government spokesman said: "It is common knowledge by now that during the period of September 13-20, a large fish kill occurred in local waters.

"It is suspected that this fish kill may be related to the unusual weather patterns which prevailed during August and early September.

"The unusually high rainfall combined with a decline in seawater temperatures may have created an environment in which a toxic plankton bloom occurred.'' The spokesman said plankton samples taken after the fish kill displayed high numbers of an organism, Pseudo-nitzchia pseudodelicatissima, which can produce the toxin domoic acid.

"Work continues to determine whether domoic acid production occurred.'' The dead fish mainly consisted of one species of fish called pinfish and the mortality appeared to be confined to inshore waters, particularly Harrington Sound.

The spokesman added that there was still no definite answer available to the questions "what caused it?'' and "will it happen again?''.

Bacteria was also collected from samples of freshly dead fish to determine whether disease organisms were present but "this line of investigation does not seem promising''.