Thousands of dead fish appear in Los Molinos dam, Argentina

Between Monday and Tuesday thousands of dead fish appeared on the shores of the Los Molinos dam, many of them large. The first striking fact is that it was only one affected species: the carps. The phenomenon caused the surprise of many visitors to the place and opened questions about the causes, not yet clarified.

The Environmental Police of the Province took samples of the fish to analyze in the laboratory, but this task will take several weeks to provide answers.

Coastal communities had to improvise collection tasks to avoid the bad image and the terrible smell. Those charges were buried.

Until yesterday there were more questions than certainties.

Among the locals, the first hypothesis was that the extreme heat of these days affected that species, which at this time spawns in the low waters of the coasts, where the temperature is higher.

The biologist Federico Kopta, of the Cordoba Environmental Forum, admitted that reason as possible, because the heat reduces oxygen to the water. But he added others as possible complementary: he noted that “Los Molinos follows the steps of San Roque in the presence of nutrients that make the algae proliferate, which, when decomposed, also consume oxygen from the water”. Kopta recalled that the main cause of the presence of algae in these reservoirs is the lack of sewage treatment in their basins. He also added another possible impact: recent floods could drag a greater amount of diverse organic matter into the lake, further reducing oxygen, and affecting fish in shallower waters to a greater extent.

Courtesy of lavoz.com.ar

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