A huge operation to clean Xirias stream from hundreds of thousands of dead fish is ongoing and so is the removal of the dead fish from the shores and the port of Volos as well as the Pagasetic Gulf.
and the sea in the city of Volos that has been declared in “state of emergency” until the end of September 2024.
Regional governor of Thessaly, Dimitris Kouretas, reportedly announced on Sunday that a total of 270 tons of dead fish were incinerated in accordance with European legislation. Four to five tons were buried in a sanitary landfill, which according to the regional governor was done in a safe area in the Municipality of Velestino after the order had been issued. environmental permit.
At the same time, the results of the measurements for possible contamination of the water in Pagasetic Gulf have come out.The measurements have shown that the water burden is within the permitted limits. On Monday, experts teams arrive in Volos to inform the agencies involved and decide the next steps.
Volos mayor Achilleas Mpeos said that swimming in the beaches affected by the ecologic disaster will be allowed again in the next days.
According to the Environment Ministry, te hundreds of thousands of dead fish that flooded the Pagasetic Gulf off the eastern coast of mainland Greece in recent days died of natural causes and not of poisoning by an industrial effluent or some other toxin., an Environment Ministry official said on Saturday.
Speaking to state broadcaster ERT, Petros Varelidis, the secretary general for Natural Environment and Waters, said the issue stems back to last September’s Storm Daniel. The storm, he said, flooded Karla Lake in Thessaly, making it grow in size and become a safe and rich ecosystem that spurred freshwater fish spawning. When the lake began to return to its natural size as a result of absorption and evaporation, the lake shrank, suffocating its unusually large fish population.
The dead fish disaster drove local businessmen, especially those in the tourism and catering sectors, in despair after they saw their customers disappearing due to the horrifying pictures and the loathsome stench.
In despair are also the fishermen as they do not know whether they can sail out for fishing and most important whether they will find customers for their catch.
Locals complain that they still have no official statements on the causes that had millions of fish to die and why the stream Xirias was opened and not closed right after the disaster became visible.
Following the old Greek tradition, local and central authorities play ping-pong with the word “responsibility”.
To have so many fish all die at the exact same time is really odd. I know the official statement is lack of oxygen but how can half a million fish lose oxygen at the exact same minute? The situation is concerning, as well as other ecological problems in Greece.