Ministry estimates dead fish found at “about 36 tons”

Created: 08/17/2022, 16:50

A dead and already decomposed fish is rescued by helpers from the water of the border river Westoder.

© Patrick Pleul/dpa

In connection with the environmental disaster in the Oder, the Federal Ministry for the Environment estimates the number of dead fish found in Germany to be around 36 tons.

This was announced by the Ministry of Steffi Lemke (Greens) on Wednesday, citing information from helpers and districts in Brandenburg.

Previously, there had been no official information on the size of the dead fish discovered so far on the German side.

Berlin - In Poland, for example, the fire brigade announced that it had recovered almost a hundred tons of dead fish from the Oder and a smaller river.

As the ministry went on to explain in the afternoon, the cause of the fish deaths in Poland and Germany is still unclear.

A combination of several factors cannot be ruled out.

“The investigation and evaluation of water samples and fish are still ongoing.

The Brandenburg State Environment Agency is supported by the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Institute for Hydrology," said a spokeswoman for the dpa.

Further test results are expected in the coming days.

The investigations are technically very demanding because "investigations have to be carried out in all conceivable directions".

The assumption that a toxic algal bloom - i.e. a massive increase in algae in a body of water - could be responsible for the fish kill is currently being investigated.

However, according to the spokeswoman, that would not explain the high salt content that was detected in the Oder.

The German-Polish authorities are still in close contact to clarify the causes of the disaster, it said.

The massive fish kill in the Oder has been known on the German side since last Tuesday.

In Poland, on the other hand, there were already first indications of fish carcasses in the border river at the end of July.

The German authorities accuse the Polish side of informing them too late, making it difficult to find the cause.

dpa