Dear Editor,

I noticed in your newspaper an article about dead fish in the Lamaha canal, I read also that tests had been done and nothing was found. I wish to advise the relevant authorities, that this could possibly be haiarri or kanali poisoning. Haiarri is a vine that is used by Amerindians to poison fish; kanali is a plant looking something like black sage and does the same thing. It is mixed with flour and made into a dough and thrown in the water; fish will eat and the end result is what we saw in the Lamaha canal. Sand Mora bark has the same effect but is not as potent.

Haiarri gives off a white milky substance when beaten in water and this causes the fish to become drunk, so to speak. Kanali does the same thing; this poison takes oxygen out of the fishes’ gills causing them to go belly up. No amount of testing will find anything. I remember seeing the waste from this type of fishing; you can pick up several bags of fish only to come back next day to see hundreds more dead.

I hope this will enlighten the townspeople. If this is indeed what may have happened I am appealing to whoever did it, to please leave those plants where they belong: in the rain forest to be used by people who know how and when to use them.

Yours faithfully,
Peter Sam