Greece is known for its fresh seafood, but one town has gotten more fish than it can handle. Hundreds of thousands of dead sea creatures have washed up in the fishing village of Volos, creating a rancid smell and raising questions about who is responsible.
The putrid situation was a result of historic flooding upriver in the Thessaly region last year, according to Reuters. The waters had refilled a previously drained lake, but the waters of that lake have since receded, forcing the freshwater fish to swim into the saltwater Pagasetic Gulf, where they perished.
Video footage posted to social media shows vast stretches of fish bodies bobbing in waves near the shore line. City councilor Stelios Limnios told Reuters the grisly sight “spans kilometers.” The mass scale of the die-off is almost impossible to comprehend.
Thousands of dead fresh-water fish found floating in the sea in Volos, #Greece.
Local authorities have temporarily lowered the Blue Flags at 6 out of 11 beaches awarded with a Blue Flag, a program that assesses criteria such as water quality and beach cleanliness.
🎥 UGC pic.twitter.com/T1V3JVEPGn
— Daphne Tolis (@daphnetoli) August 27, 2024
The sheer number of corpses was so large that trawlers were dispatched with dragging nets, with the boats later dumping the remains of 40 tons of fish into the back of trucks, according to Reuters. Greek newspaper Ta Nea reported another 60 tons of fish were removed from beaches by work crews equipped mostly with shovels. The recovered fish were being sent to incinerators for disposal.
During a press conference, Volos mayor Achilleas Beos said the fish corpses had produced an incredible odor. Beos also expressed concern that the rotting fish could lead to an environmental disaster that affects other species in the area. The mayor also blamed the central government for neglecting to put a net at the river’s mouth, which he said would have averted the situation. “They didn’t do the obvious, to put a protective net,” he said, according to NBC News.
As Ta Nea reports, the country’s top prosecutor has gotten involved. Georgia Adeilini, general prosecutor of the Supreme Court, reportedly sent a letter to the Prosecution Office of Volos, requesting an investigation into the possibility of criminal activity. Of particular interest is determining whether a sluice gate leading to the waterway was left open, and whether some of the dead fish had been disposed of improperly.
Volos is located around 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of Athens and is known as a hotspot for tourism and seafood. That reputation could be in danger, thanks to climate change, which has had a drastic effect on Greece. While it can be difficult to prove any one isolated weather event is connected to climate change, several recent scientific papers have urged Greek authorities to invest in water and infectious disease infrastructure, noting the increase in frequency and seriousness of extreme weather in the country. The country has been hit by massive wildfires, brutal heat waves, and record breaking rainfall and flooding in just the past few years. Like all suffering caused by severe weather, the situation is bad, but this one in particular, to put it plainly, stinks.
