Black, foul-smelling water kept the harbour at Cahore off limits to swimmers yesterday, as pollution from the Ballywater Canal spread 50 yards on either side of the little pier.
But the daily ritual of crabcatching with baited hooks on the end of pieces of string continued regardless. This simple pastime, strange as it may seem, has always been the source of endless fascination and excitement for the throngs of mainly Dublin children on family holidays in the caravan parks surrounding the small resort.
Wexford County Council officials revealed yesterday that initial tests showed the nature of the pollution billowing from the canal to be organic - a combination of stagnant water and rotting vegetable matter. It turned several miles of the drainage canal into a liquid resembling Indian ink and continued to discharge slowly into the harbour with the rise and fall of every tide.
Council officials said the liquid was toxic - but it had been created by natural conditions, including recent prolonged local flooding, and not by agricultural or industrial processes.
However, its entry into the canal appears to have been brought about by human activities - possibly the pumping out of floodwaters from farmland. The officials would not give details yesterday, but would only say that the source of the pollution had been identified and its discharge into the canal had stopped.
Further tests are being carried out on the liquid and no decision has been taken on any action against those responsible.
Meanwhile, the curtailment of swimming in the region of the harbour has marred the major holiday activity for the hundreds of city families who own, share or sub-let mobile homes in the vicinity.
Cahore has been a convenient, safe and cheap holiday location for generations of Dublin people. "They come down here because it's a safe area for kids," said Mr Lester Horgan, proprietor of the Strand Bar perched above the harbour.
This was confirmed by Ms Jackie Brunton and Ms Susan Cooling, from Artane, with five young children between them. "You can't let them out in Dublin. There's great freedom here. It is really relaxing - there is no time down here," they observed. "It's only an hour and a half from Dublin, and if the weather changes you can always go home."
Mr Horgan, who said 95 per cent of his bar trade was with Dublin people, had accurately pinpointed the nature of the pollutant even before the council analysts did their tests. "I was born and bred here, and I know the smell of stagnant water," he said.
The problem is that the slow seepage into the harbour could rule out swimming for several weeks, and the council is now considering whether pumping clean water into the canal's upper reaches would flush it out more rapidly into the bay, where the action of the sea is dispersing it effectively.
Many years ago, a local person was paid to man the sluice gates on the canal, opening them at low tide and closing them at high tide to maximise the discharge of the canal water. But the gates are no longer operational.
Trade had declined in local business premises, and the proprietors are irritated at the negative publicity. But they are satisfied it was "just an act of God", and are anxiously awaiting a change in sea and climatic conditions to restore Cahore's reputation for fine bathing waters.