Mexicans are baffled at the sudden death of thousands of fish in a lake in the centre of the country, a dramatic intensification of a problem that no one has yet been able to explain.
Nearly 50 tonnes of dead popoche chub fish were removed at the weekend from Lake Cajititlán, a lagoon in the central state of Jalisco.
Fishermen, firefighters, town hall workers and staff from the state agricultural ministry pulled hundreds of thousands of dead popoche chub fish from the lake and buried them in a pit.
The incident comes after of a series of smaller waves of dead popoche chub in the lake in recent months, including one last week, ensuring that 2014 is already by far the worst year for the species, which has been under attack for the past few years.
The authorities in the lakeside town of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, about 25 minutes' drive south of the city of Guadalajara, had previously blamed the deaths on "a cyclical phenomenon caused by temperature variations and the reduction of oxygen".
This weekend, the state's environment secretary, Magdalena Ruiz Mejía, ruled out natural causes and blamed "poor management of the body of water". She pointed to municipal waste water treatment facilities and promised a full investigation.
A fisherman collects dead popoche chub fish from Lake Cajititlán, Mexico. Nearly 50 tonnes of dead fish were removed. Photograph: Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images
Read more HERE.
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| http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/mexico-baffled-death-fish-lake-cajititlan-pollution |
Nearly 50 tonnes of dead popoche chub fish were removed at the weekend from Lake Cajititlán, a lagoon in the central state of Jalisco.
Fishermen, firefighters, town hall workers and staff from the state agricultural ministry pulled hundreds of thousands of dead popoche chub fish from the lake and buried them in a pit.
The incident comes after of a series of smaller waves of dead popoche chub in the lake in recent months, including one last week, ensuring that 2014 is already by far the worst year for the species, which has been under attack for the past few years.
The authorities in the lakeside town of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, about 25 minutes' drive south of the city of Guadalajara, had previously blamed the deaths on "a cyclical phenomenon caused by temperature variations and the reduction of oxygen".
This weekend, the state's environment secretary, Magdalena Ruiz Mejía, ruled out natural causes and blamed "poor management of the body of water". She pointed to municipal waste water treatment facilities and promised a full investigation.
A fisherman collects dead popoche chub fish from Lake Cajititlán, Mexico. Nearly 50 tonnes of dead fish were removed. Photograph: Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images
Read more HERE.
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