Thousands of fish die from thermal shock as cold sweeps Greece

RICHO LAGOON, Greece, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Hundreds of countless numbers of farmed fish have died from cold in a lagoon in northwestern Greece immediately after a large snowstorm crippled the nation this 7 days.

The dead fish, seabream and white seabream, began to arise on the surface of the Richo Lagoon of Drepano Lake early on Tuesday just after temperatures in the drinking water dropped to as minimal as zero degrees Celsius.

“The destruction is substantial, it is believed there are all around 50 tonnes of useless fish,” stated Ioannis Ouzounoglou, who will work at the state-owned fish farm, right after collecting some in his rowing boat.

“In all the final years that I have been recording and measuring temperatures in the space, I by no means envisioned that we would have such lower temperatures in the minuses.”

Countries throughout the area have been strike by a rare chilly snap, which includes in Athens whichs was blanketed in snow.

The fish’s enclosure in the farm in the lagoon prevented them from swimming out to the further waters of the lake or sea to survive, scientist Konstantinos Perdikaris from the Office of Fisheries claimed.

“They died from thermal shock,” mentioned Perdikaris who frequented the lagoon on Tuesday.

The seabream species, compared with other fish, is sensitive to very low temperatures and cannot endure underneath 4C (39 levels Fahrenheit), Perdikaris explained. The fish have been at a shallow depth wherever the chilly was more rapidly to penetrate the water.

“At shallow depths the reaction of the air is a lot more extreme,” he reported. Common temperatures in the lagoon this time of calendar year are about 7-8C.

Drone video clip confirmed 1000’s of lifeless fish floating on the floor of the lagoon and on the shores.

“Each yr we totally free them into the lake, but this year regretably we did not have the opportunity to no cost them in time, since the frost (came speedily),” mentioned Ouzounoglou.

The fish farm contained more than 600,000 fish of numerous species. Other species were not harmed.

Reporting by Giannis Floulis and Deborah Kyvrikosaios Enhancing by Alison Williams

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