More than 6,000 people were deployed in Warsaw to salvage the dead fish. Dead fish have also been floating in a second river for a few days.
According to the Polish fire brigade, they have so far recovered almost 160 tons of dead fish from the Oder and a smaller river. A total of 158 tons, said the spokeswoman for the fire department headquarters on Saturday. The majority is accounted for by dead fish from the Oder. According to earlier information from the Ministry of the Environment, at least 36 tons were recovered in Brandenburg.
The small river in Poland is the Ner, which has its source south of Lodz and flows into the Warta. He has no connection to the Oder. Dead fish have also been floating in the Ner for a few days. The cause has not yet been clarified.
Toxic species of algae?
In the past few days, masses of dead fish have been discovered and collected in the Oder on the Polish and German side. According to the Interior Ministry in Warsaw, more than 3,000 firefighters, more than 2,000 police officers and 1,300 soldiers were deployed in Poland to salvage the dead fish. Scientists say a toxic species of algae might be a key factor in fish kills. But that has not yet been proven. Other substances are currently being investigated. Brandenburg’s Ministry of the Environment continues to assume that the environmental disaster had several causes.
Meanwhile, the statement of the regional head of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Zbiegniew Bogucki, gives some hope. Accordingly, living fish can be seen once more. “Where we recovered tons of dead fish a few days ago, live fish have now appeared,” Bogucki wrote on Twitter on Saturday. However, due to a lack of oxygen in the water, many fish are on the verge of suffocation and swim close to the surface. The politician posted a video showing this. Bogucki wrote in another tweet that he had now contacted the local fire brigade to try to aerate the water with pumps.
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