Thousands of dead crabs have been washed up ashore in the shores of protected Kotychi wetland some 45 km away form the city of Patras, in north-western Peloponnese.
According to local media, thousands of dead crabs have been recorded either washed up on the shores or they are floating dead in the marsh waters in the Municipality Andravida-Kyllini in Ilia.
Visitors of the area, reported to local newspaper patris that there is stench of decay and abandonment and nothing resembles a protected area.
The dead crabs may belong to the invasive Callinectes sapidus (Blue crab) species.
“For the time being, no one can say with certainty whether this is the result of some disease or some kind of environmental pollution, or whether it is due to a human intervention that trapped these crab populations and prevented them from finding escape or whether it is a consequence of the climate crisis that is responsible for the sudden change in the temperature of the sea,” newspaper patris stressed calling for an immediate inquiry into the incident by the relevant authorities.
The newspaper added that “it is impressive that the whole issue has not been made public, although many of the crabs, as can be seen from their visual images, are dead for several days, while others appear to have been died recently.
The Kotychi Lagoon covers an area of 3.7 kilometers on the Ionian Sea and is an important wetland that is protected under the Ramsar Convention and under the European Union’s Natura 2000 network.
A part of the Strofylia National Park, it is rich in fish, reptiles and amphibians, and is also regarded as an important breeding, staging and wintering site for waterbirds.
