08/28/2021 4:47 PM
Clarín.com
International
Spain
Updated 08/28/2021 4:47 PM
Thousands of people formed a human chain of mourning this Saturday around the
Mar Menor, a salty lagoon in southeastern Spain
, from where tons of dying fish were taken in recent weeks, according to organizers of the activity and officials.
The lagoon
was a tourist paradise and is now dying
due to the lack of oxygen linked to nitrates for agricultural use.
The images of
the dead fish shocked the inhabitants of this region,
whose residents attended the mass event.
Thousands of Murcians gathered this Saturday on the shores of the Mar Menor, forming a human chain and mourning the salty lagoon.
Photo: EFE
Huge lines of people were seen holding hands on
Alcázares beach
, along six kilometers, and in other parts of the lake's 73 kilometers of shores.
Many people wore black and others carried flags that read
"SOS Mar Menor".
Organizers said
about 70,000 people attended the protest.
"It was an act of mourning for the death of the animals (...).
We wanted the people to be in the Sea
and somehow apologize to the animals for the atrocity that humans have done to them," he told AFP
Jesús Cutillas, one of the protesters.
The ecological disaster of the Mar Menor is news throughout Spain after the death of some 15 million fish.
Photo: Reuters
"We have been living for many days, day after day,
the death of millions and millions of fish.
Seeing all that unnecessary death hurts. The aim was to express our regret for what has happened, and our willingness that it does not have to to happen again, "said Cutillas.
On Monday, official authorities said they
removed between 4.5 and 5 tons of fish
, but this Saturday the volume rose to 15 tons of fish and algae.
The geographical location of Mar Menor, in Spain.
For
Noelia Arroyo, mayor of the nearby town of Cartagena
, "the 15 tons of dead fish and biomass show that there is a catastrophe and an environmental emergency."
"
We need immediate aid for the ecosystem
and for the affected sectors. And for those who have the experts and the means to act," he added.
The motto of thousands of Murcians to save the lagoon: "SOS Mar Menor".
Photo: AFP
For his part,
Pedro García, director of the Association of Southeast Naturalists
(ANSE), pointed out that "surely, in the 15 tons there will be 2 or 3 of dead vegetation."
"But we have no way of confirming how much," he said.
With an area of about 135 square kilometers, the Mar Menor is one of the largest
hypersaline coastal lagoons in the Mediterranean
, separated from this sea by a 22 km sand bar, with a maximum depth of 7 meters.
Its contamination is causing life to be extinguished