Drought and industrial pollution appear to have created the poisonous cocktail that has puzzled authorities for weeks. View on euronews...
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Euronews
2022-08-22T12:55:44Z
A rare glut of ‘golden algae’ is the most likely culprit behind mass fish deaths in the River Oder, tests have found.
Authorities on both sides of the river in Poland and Germany have been mystified by the ecological catastrophe which has caused tonnes of fish, birds and molluscs to die since late July.
"When this specific type of algae is present in very large quantities, as is the case in the Oder samples, very high toxin concentrations must also be assumed," says Elisabeth Varga from the University of Vienna, who led the analysis of the IGB samples.
Dead fish were first spotted in the river near Oława town, around 400km from the Baltic Sea on 26 July. But the algal species can spread farther inland when there are high levels of salinity in the water.
Polish climate minister Anna Moskwa said that more research is needed to determine the conditions that led to the algae's appearance. "We see that it rarely appears in the world," she says.
Polish politician Piotr Borys points to one company in particular, copper smelting giant KGHM, which
The MP from Lubin claims that Polish Waters, the government body responsible for inland surface waters, failed to call for the discharges to be suspended, despite the unfolding crisis.
If nothing was done to decrease salt levels, such toxic overgrowths could occur again during a hot, dry summer, Goldhammer adds.
Southwestern and south central US lakes have seen a proliferation of Prymnesium parvum since 2000, causing “significant fish kills in inland waters.”
