Life in the River Wye is silently slipping away. The crisis can be seen in the death of fish and insects, the unrelenting loss of aquatic flowers, and the huge algal blooms that turn the river green and stinking during long, hot spells. Phosphate, the chemical that creates these algal blooms and the resulting loss of oxygen in the water, is invisible. But you can see, and often smell, the main cause of the problem. Manure from chicken farms making its way into the Wye.