Over than 1 ton fish are dead in the river in Switzerland due to heat wave

News24xx.com - Unfortunately, at least one ton of fish died in Swiss waters in the past few days due to heat waves that hit mainland of Europe. The temperature of the local river rises high enough to make it difficult for fish to survive.

Reported by local media, RTS and reported by AFP on Wednesday, August 8th 2018, the most severely affected area is Rhine River which flows from Lake Constance to the Rhine Falls. A large number of dead fish have been cleared from the river since last weekend.

"We have been monitoring fish that have died in recent days, which float along the Rhine river. We have to take about 1,000 kilograms (dead fish) from the river" said Andreas Vogeli, official of the Schaffhausen Region's Ministry of Hunting and Fisheries.

Grayling fish - salmon family - are used to live in cold waters can still survive in rivers where temperatures exceed 20 degrees Celsius. However, certain areas on the Rhine River were recorded to have temperatures above 27 degrees Celsius in the last few days. During the 2003 heat wave, about 90 percent of the grayling fish population in Switzerland was killed.

Samuel Grundler of the Swiss Fisheries Association called the situation 'very dangerous'. "We have done everything we can" he told RTS.

Emergency measures, including moving fish to buckets of cold water if possible, have been carried out. "We have saved fish along hundreds of kilometers of river flow and moved them to other waters" said fisheries and hunting watchdogs for the Zurich region, Urs Philipp.

 

 

 

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