Spain: Tonnes of dead fish off the southeast coast of the country

Spain

Published Aug 26, 2021

Tridge summary

For more than a week, waves have washed hundreds of thousands of dead fish and crustaceans ashore the Mar Menor, a lagoon cut off by the Mediterranean Sea in southeastern Spain. The prime minister of the autonomous region of Murcia wants an ecological disaster to be declared there. Murcia residents and tourists are surprised by the scale of the phenomenon and complain on social networks about the condition of the beaches littered with decaying, foul-smelling fish.

Original content

A red flag denoting bathing was displayed on eight beaches of this very popular region among tourists. Murcia's Prime Minister Fernando Lopez Miras said he would ask Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to declare a state of ecological disaster. The sea began discarding dead fish on August 15 and 4.5 tonnes have been collected so far, according to the latest data from the region. However, environmentalists say there are at least 28 tons of dead fish on the beaches; according to the environmental organization ANSE, only 4 tons were collected on Saturday. Environmentalists accuse the government of Murcia of lack of transparency in providing data on the scale of the phenomenon; They also report that the problem is becoming more and more serious, as catfish and mullets, as well as shrimps, crayfish, octopus and cuttlefish, are massively killed. The causes of this crisis are still unknown. According to Murcia authorities, they are related to the latest heatwave, which raised the water ...

Source: SwiatRolnika