WARSAW – Polish officials said Thursday that toxic algae were responsible for mass fish deaths in the Oder River, ruling out industrial pollution as the cause.
The conclusions announced at a press conference by scientists and government officials are based on a preliminary report to be released on Friday. A few weeks after the environmental disaster struck.
The report’s authors said: Nearly 250 tons of dead fish recovered from the Oder River through Poland and Germany.
Agnieszka Kolada of the Polish Institute of Environmental Protection said that a variety of factors “concluded that the fish deaths were probably due to the toxicity of the algal blooms.”
The microalgae in question – Prymnesium parvum, or known as golden algae – are widely distributed in estuaries, usually growing mainly in brackish waters near the sea, and “has never been detected in Poland until now. ‘ she told reporters.
She added that Oder’s water quality had been bad “for years”, only exacerbated by high temperatures and very low water levels this summer.
Some observers, including the press and environmental groups, suspected that a chemical spill was the cause of the disaster, but the Polish side rejected that theory.
According to the report’s presentation, “Fish deaths were not caused by heavy metals, pesticides or petroleum substances.
According to the analysis so far, “none of the inspected entities discharged pollutants into the river above regulatory limits,” said Andrzej Szweda-Lewandowski, the government’s environmental protection chief. rice field.
The amount of industrial waste was “same as last year,” he told reporters.
Polish fishermen began reporting fish carcasses in the Oder River in late July, which began washing up in Germany a few days later.
The Polish government responded on 12 August, provoking widespread criticism from both Polish local authorities and Germany. AFPMore
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/poland-blames-toxic-algae-for-oder-river-fish-kill Poisonous algae kill fish in Poland’s Oder river