Horrific fish kill unleashes ecological nightmare in Greek coastal town

Greece is known for its fresh seafood, but one town has received more fish than it can handle. Hundreds of thousands of dead sea creatures have washed up in the fishing village of Volos, causing a rancid smell and raising questions about who is responsible.

According to Reuters, the rotting condition was the result of a historic flood upriver in the region of Thessaly last year. The waters had refilled a previously drained lake, but the lake level has since receded, forcing freshwater fish to swim into the saltwater Pagasetic Gulf, where they perished.

A video posted on social media shows large expanses of fish bodies floating in the waves near the shore. Councillor Stelios Limnios told Reuters the gruesome image “stretches for kilometres”. The massive scale of the die-off is almost impossible to comprehend.

Thousands of dead freshwater fish found floating in the sea in Volos, #Greece.

Local authorities have temporarily lowered the Blue Flag status on six of the 11 beaches awarded the Blue Flag, a programme that evaluates criteria such as water quality and beach cleanliness.

User Generated Content image.twitter.com/T1V3JVEPGn

— Daphne Tolis (@daphnetoli) August 27, 2024

According to Reuters, the number of carcasses was so large that fishing boats were sent out with trawl nets, which then dumped the remains of 40 tonnes of fish into the back of trucks. Greek newspaper Ta Nea reported that another 60 tonnes of fish were removed from beaches by work crews equipped mostly with shovels. The recovered fish were being sent to incinerators for disposal.

During a press conference, Volos Mayor Achilleas Beos said the fish carcasses had produced an incredible smell. Beos also expressed concern that the rotting fish could lead to an environmental disaster affecting other species in the area. The mayor also blamed the central government for failing to place a net at the river mouth, which he said would have prevented the situation. “They didn’t do the obvious thing, which was to put a protective net in place,” he said, according to NBC News.

According to Ta Nea, the country’s chief prosecutor has intervened. Georgia Adeilini, the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court, has reportedly sent a letter to the Volos Prosecutor’s Office requesting an investigation into the possibility that a crime may have been committed. Of particular interest is whether a gate leading to the water channel was left open and whether some of the dead fish were disposed of improperly.

Volos is located about 200 miles north of Athens and is known as a tourist hotspot and seafood hotspot. That reputation could be in jeopardy because of climate change, which has had a drastic effect on Greece. While it can be difficult to prove that an isolated weather event is linked to climate change, several recent scientific papers have urged Greek authorities to invest in water and disease-fighting infrastructure, and have pointed to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events in the country. The country has been hit by massive wildfires, brutal heat waves, and unprecedented rainfall and flooding in recent years. Like all weather-related suffering, the situation is bad, but this one in particular, to put it bluntly, stinks.