Shocking images show thousands of dead fish blanketing Greek tourist port

29 August 2024, 08:20

Hundreds of thousands of dead fish covered a tourist port in Greece this week, leaving authorities scrambling to remove them.

Flooding forced the fish out of their normal freshwater habitat into the sea last year, which experts say killed them.

This week the fish’s bodies flooded into a tourist port in the central city of Volos, creating a silvery blanket along the river.

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Trawlers have started dragging nets across the water to remove the fish, but authorities face a race against time before the smell of rotting carcases reaches nearby restaurants and bars.

“It spans kilometres. It’s not just along the coast, but also in the centre of the Pagasetic Gulf,” city council member Stelios Limnios said, explaining the body of water impacted by the fish.

Local mayor Achilleas Beos described the smell as “unbearable” as he hit out at the national government for failing to prevent the swarm of fish from arriving in their town.

“They didn’t do the obvious, to put a protective net,” he said.

He warned the mountain of dead fish could lead to an environmental disaster if they are not removed in time.

“Closing the barrier now doesn’t help. Now it’s too late, the tourist season is over,” local restaurant owner Dimosthenis Bakoyiannis said.

Earlier this month, shocking images showed groups of fish dead in a West Midlands after a sodium cyanide chemical spill.

Exposure to the chemical can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, confusion, changes in heart rate and loss of consciousness, according to the agency.

Ingesting cyanide salts, which can dissolve in water, releases cyanide into the body, the agency’s website states.