VOLOS – Greece will provide support to businesses in the seaside city of Volos where 100 tons of freshwater fish flushed from inland died from reported suffocation and hitting saltwater, decaying along the restaurants and beaches with a big stink.

That is under a State of Emergency in the central port where Mayor Achilleos Beos blamed the government for not closing a watergate to keep the fish from reaching there, with a cleanup still underway.

Businesses, especially those catering to tourists, were hit hard as restaurants found few customers willing to sit near where dead fish were smelling up the city, officials and restaurateurs bemoaning the situation.

Authorities said the freshwater fish died as a result of devastating floods that hit Greece’s central Thessaly region in 2023, putting more than 20,000 hectares (49,421 acres) under water.

The rains also refilled the nearby Lake Karla that was drained in 1962 to fight malaria, seeing it swell to three times its natural size and providing another area for the fish whose numbers soared.

When the lake waters receded during a long dry spell, the fish were forced toward Volos, a port that empties into the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea, and a gate that would have kept them out hadn’t been closed.

A Civil Protection Emergency measure will allow local authorities to commit funding and other resources to finish the cleanup of the fish, the Athens News Agency, the emergency declared by Climate Minister Vassilis Papageorgiou.

That will last through September for now as trawlers and crews worked to remove the dead fish, tons of them right up against the port and city edge next to businesses that have emptied over the stench.

Special nets have also been placed at the mouth of the Xiria River to help contain the large volume of dead fish even as Beos kept ripping the regional authority that he said was too slow to act, making his complaints to reporters.

Tourism there had already reportedly plummeted 80 percent after the 2023 floods, said the local association of restaurants and bars. “The situation with this dead fish will be the death of us,” Stefanos Stefanou, its president said. “What visitor will come to our city after this?” he asked.

WE’LL SKIP THE FISH

Volos’ Chamber of Commerce said it was taking legal action to seek damages and the public prosecutor ordered an investigation into how and why the fish were allowed to reach the port, although officials also blamed climate change.

“Businesses along the seafront, particularly in the catering industry, are now suspending operations,” the chamber said, adding that: “A strong stench along the seafront is repulsive to both residents and visitors, delivering a severe blow to tourism in Volos.”

The Ministries of Economy and Finance, Health, Environment and Energy, Labour and Social Security, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, announced measures to compensate businesses for losses, said Euronews, Greece not requiring insurance.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/09/01/greek-authorities-announce-financial-support-after-tonnes-of-dead-fish-wash-into-volos

Tax and insurance payments will also be suspended and a so-called Thessaly Pass will be activated, a scheme which aims to promote regional tourism and the government will try to find further promotions, the news site said.

“We are cooperating with whoever wants to see this phenomenon end as quickly as possible,” Anna Maria Papadimitriou, the Deputy Regional Governor of Thessaly said. “The Regional Governor has declared a State of Emergency,”, she added.

Petros Varelidis, Secretary-General for Natural Environment and Waters, told state broadcaster ERT that the fish died of natural causes and not of poisoning by an industrial effluent or some other toxin.

He said 2023’s Storm Daniel flooded Lake Karla, 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.

“When the drainage ditch fell below the water surface in the plain, the water suddenly gained momentum, and all these fish, dead or alive, were carried away towards the Pagasetic Gulf,” Varelidis said.

He added they died when they hit a saltwater environment and said that a cleanup effort of the Xiria stream, which links Karla to the gulf, was working and the situation being brought under control, after the fact.