The Director-General of NOSDRA, Mr. Idris Musa, said in a statement that the high toxicity of the dead fishes and water samples was caused by pollution from heavy metals from industrial and domestic wastes discharged from domestic and industrial sources on land.
Musa said: "In the course of the analyses, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAR), Benzene, Toluene Ethylene and Xylene (BTEX) were within regulatory standard limits in water, sediments and fish tissue analyses.
"However, there were some heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium copper, zinc and iron that exceeded regulatory standard limits in the coastlines of the three states of Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers.
"In the water samples taken at the coastline in Bayelsa State, the values of cadmium and iron were higher than the regulatory standards limit.
The values of chromium and copper in the sampled dead fishes' tissue were slightly higher than the European Union standards limits."
