More than 100 tons of dead fish flood Greek port

Authorities in central Greece said Thursday they had dredged more than 100 tonnes of dead fish from waters around the port of Volos, a picturesque summer destination, after a massive fish die-off believed to be linked to climate change.

As television footage showed fishing boats trawling through a silvery layer of dead fish that had formed off the port earlier this week on Thursday, passers-by snapped photos of the gruesome scene with their mobile phones.

Greek officials have blamed each other for the disaster, while waterfront businesses that rely on tourism have said they have seen their revenues cut by 80% since the freshwater fish appeared earlier this week.

And then there was this horrible smell that hung in the harbor and its surroundings.

Scientists believe the deaths are likely due to a combination of global warming and poor water management.

Southern Europe is facing the adverse effects of rising temperatures affecting the region. Extreme heat this summer has led to more frequent wildfires, heat-related deaths and floods, as well as a growing threat of drought.

The fish are believed to have been pushed downstream to Volos from the area of ​​Lake Karla, a wetland protected by the European Union, whose water levels rose sharply after a major storm caused widespread flooding in central Greece last autumn.

The storm flooded about 50,000 acres of land around Lake Karla, said Pantelis Sidiropoulos, assistant professor of rural and topographical engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

But extreme temperatures have caused much of that water to evaporate, leaving masses of fish in increasingly thin waters lacking oxygen and poisoned by toxins, Sidiropoulos said in a telephone interview.

“Fish are basically victims of climate change,” he said, noting that his colleagues had seen dead fish in farmland next to Lake Karla earlier this week.

“The authorities had months to remove the fish from the area,” he added. “They remained in stagnant waters for a long time.”

Local authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

Greece’s Supreme Court prosecutor, Georgia Adeilini, on Thursday ordered an investigation into the massacre, citing “a nightmarish image of tons of dead fish in Lake Karla and the Pagasetic Gulf.”

She said the investigation would determine the extent to which authorities should be held responsible for failing to prevent water from Lake Karla from flowing into the sea.

Achilleas Beos, the mayor of Volos, said he had warned of the potential consequences of flooding the agricultural plains adjacent to Lake Karla after last year’s storm. He called the disaster an “environmental crime.”

Dimitrios Iakovakis, owner of one of the largest fish taverns on the Volos waterfront, said he had lost most of his customers in recent days.

“It’s deserted,” he says of his restaurant, noting that his income has dropped to 200 euros a day, or $210, from 5,000 euros.

“The smell is unbearable,” he added, noting that in 25 years of running the tavern he had never seen anything like it. “A sea of ​​rotting fish five metres from our tables. Who could have imagined that?”