THE Ministry of Fisheries is awaiting the return of samples taken at Komave — the site of mass fish deaths last week — before it is able to make a definitive statement on the cause behind the deaths.

But the ministry has received information that tentatively points to the deaths being the result of a heatwave in the area and an unusually low tide.

“Based on assumptions, we tend to ask around the village communities and the message received from them was that particular day, they had this heatwave and very low tide,” Fisheries director George Madden said.

“And you can see along that Coral Coast, the reefs are narrow, about 50 metres to the drop off and I heard the temperature on that day exceeded 37 degrees. But we are still going on with the analysis of those samples and we are awaiting the results from USP.”

Mr Madden explained the ministry’s research team was based in Serua and were deployed to the Coral Coast on Monday.

“So we received the report on Monday and our team was deployed there. Our fisheries extension staff from Sigatoka went to the site first and collected samples of the dead fish and also the water samples.

“They also did a few research assumptions on what might have caused the death and the samples were sent to USP for further analysis.”