Greece Declares Emergency Over Flood of Dead Fish
Greece declared a month-long emergency in Volos City on 31st August 2024, after thousands of freshwater fish died in its Xiria River, the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea. How and why did these fish
Greece declared a month-long emergency in Volos, its central port city on 31st August 2024, after thousands of freshwater fish died in its Xiria River, the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea. According to the reports, more than 100 tons of dead fish piled up along the coast and in the rivers & canals of Volvos last week, raising a massive stink in the city. Videos & photos of the incident showing a silvery blanket of dead fish on the surface of the water have gone viral on social media. Greece authorities said that mass fish death is the result of last year’s devastating floods that hit Greece's central Thessaly region. Last year, severe storms flooded more than 20,000 hectares of land in Thessaly region. It also refilled & Lake Karla that had been drained, and swelled it up three times its normal size. This resulted in freshwater fish returning to Lake Karla. However, the flooding was followed by severe drought. The drought caused Lake Karla to slowly dry, forcing the fish to travel to the Xiria River, the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea in Volos. Freshwater fishes can’t survive in salty sea water and as a result, thousands of fish died clogging the water. Greece’s climate ministry's secretary general of civil protection, Vassilis Papageorgiou, has announced special funds & extra support to speed up the cleaning of rivers & ports. The measures to remove the dead fish bodies are underway. Special nets have also been placed at the mouth of the Xiria River to help contain the large volume of dead fish. Authorities are also using fishing trawlers & earthmovers to scoop up the dead fish from the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea. The dead fish are then loaded onto trucks and taken to an incinerator. Greek Authorities said that they had removed 57 tons of dead fish on 31st September 2024 alone. By 3rd September 2024, officials claimed to have removed around 100 tons of the dead fish. Greek authorities expect the incident to negatively affect the already poor tourism in Greece. According to the reports, Tourism to Volos city & Thessaly region has dropped by nearly 80% since last year's flooding, The president of the association of local restaurants and bars, Stefanos Stefanou said "The situation with this dead fish will be the death of us. What visitor will come to our city after this?" Volos' Chamber of Commerce has announced taking legal action to control damages after the severe drop in commercial tourism activities. Greece’s public prosecutor has launched an investigation into the crisis. Greece is continuously witnessing an increasing number of extreme weather incidents including higher temperatures, erratic rainfall, wildfires, droughts, floods, etc. & scientists have linked these to global warming & climate change. In April 2024, Greece was covered in orange dust from the Sahara Desert for around 3 days. ISH had released a video on it. Watch it next.
(insert link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NWWVCOR0FI)
