The first episode of hypoxia of the year leaves dozens of lifeless specimens in Santiago de la Ribera and triggers the fear of a great mortality
Fox fry, gobies, chirretes, some crabs and shrimps suffocated yesterday in the inlet of the Mar Menor that forms El Atalayón, a promenade in front of the City of the Air, where numerous boats sheltered from the currents anchor without permission.
The regional government estimated this first deadly wave of marine fauna at about 250 specimens, which are equivalent to about three kilos in weight, according to the environmental agents who traveled to this shore of Santiago de la Ribera early in the morning.
three waves of death
-
12/October/2019
Lo Pagan. The first sample of the gravity of the Mar Menor and the most impressive. mobilized the public. More than three tons of dead fish were collected. -
16/August/2021
The Grandchildren and La Manga. The appearance of five tons of marine carcasses on the southernmost shore was a serious blow to the tourist campaign. -
18/May/2022
The Watchtower. First breath of death at the beginning of the tourist campaign. Scientists predict new oil slicks of fish with the heat.
They were mostly smaller fish, more vulnerable to the hypoxia process – partial lack of oxygen – that occurred in the bay created between the NCO Club of the military base and the Socaire sailing school. An area with few currents, usually carpeted with algae and ova. Oxygen was three times lower in that area early yesterday morning, specifically between 2.5 and 3 milligrams per liter, compared to 7 or 8 milligrams per liter detected in other parts of the lagoon, according to yesterday the spokesman for the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Mar Menor, Emilio María Dolores.
The autonomous Executive estimated that some 250 specimens were extracted lifeless from the water, the equivalent of about three kilos of weight
Several agents of the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard took samples of the water and the dead fish to carry out their investigation.
The brigades of workers for the collection of eggs had to be used thoroughly in the extraction of the carcasses, although some dead fish were splashing the bald spots on the seabed in this shallow sheet of water. With great speed, the baskets of dead fauna were removed by the boats contracted by the Community for the extraction of biomass in the lagoon. Everything was done so fast that not even the monitors of the sailing school were aware of the event.
In a healthy sea organisms
marine animals carry out photosynthesis thanks to the sunlight that enters the water
In a polluted sea microscopic algae proliferate and form a layer that blocks light, so the vegetation dies because it cannot
do photosynthesis
The species rise to the surface in
search for oxygen and die. Bacteria are generated in the background that consume more oxygen
In a polluted sea microscopic algae proliferate and form a layer that blocks light, so the vegetation dies because it cannot
do photosynthesis
In a healthy sea marine organisms carry out photosynthesis thanks to the sunlight that enters the water
The species rise to the surface in search of oxygen and die. Bacteria are generated in the background that consume more oxygen
The environmental agents of the Murcian Institute of Agrarian and Environmental Research and Development (Imida) took water samples and analyzed part of the lifeless whitebait in this third wave of marine mortality. The Community assured yesterday that they will continue analyzing water intakes to monitor the evolution of the environment “in case new specimens appear,” they point out.
Summer under threat
This time it has been less aggressive and the balance less substantial than in the two previous black episodes. The first, recorded on October 12, 2019, dragged three tons of specimens of all species to the Lo Pagán beach, giving their final breaths due to lack of oxygen in the water column. The second, around August 20, 2021, dumped five tons in various areas of the southernmost shore, from the Lengua de Vaca, in Los Nietos, to the beach of Puerto Bello, in La Manga.
Scientists have already notified it, both from the Committee that advises the Autonomous Community and those from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography. It will be a summer constantly threatened by fish suffocation and conditioned by the environmental alarm in the tourism sector.
The variables of the lagoon did not bode well, with levels higher than ever in everything that should be low (turbidity, chlorophyll and nitrates) and too low what should rise to serve as a shield for the lagoon (salinity and oxygen).
After a particularly rainy winter, which has drained tons of mud with fresh water and agricultural fertilizers into the Mar Menor, the ecosystem has released its first signs of aggravation this spring. First with the explosion of algae, which was expected to consume high amounts of oxygen as it decomposed and muddied the base, darkening the seabed even more, making it impracticable for shrimp fishing on the shore of La Manga. “More than 800 tons of nitrogen have entered so far this year, which is twice the amount received in the entire year 2021,” explains María Dolores.
Species affected by
previous anoxia in the Mar Menor
Atherina boyeri (Chirrete or Pejerrey)
Anguilla anguilla (European eel)
Parablennius sanguinolentus (Lagartina)
Gobius cobitis
(rock goby)
Gobius niger (Goby
black or squat)
symphodus cinereus (porredana gray or bodion)
Mullus barbatus
(mud mullet)
Dalophis imberbis
(sand shingles)
Mycteroperca rubra (Gypsy)
Solea senegalensis (Senegal Sole)
Diplodus sargus
(white bream)
Diplodus annularis (Raspallón)
Diplodus vulgaris
(Mojarra)
Syngnathus typhle
(needle mule)
Serranus scriba
(Highlander)
Syngnathus abaster
(river needle)
Carcinus aestuarii
(green crab)
Arthropoda callinectes sapidus (Crab or Blue Crab)
Arthropoda pachygrapsus marmoratus (Runner or Shoemaker Crab)
Arthropoda acanthonyx lunulatus (Scrab)
Alphanius iberus
(Fartet)
Dicentrarchus labrax (Sea Bass)
sunny sunny
(Common sole)
Lithognathus mormyrus (Herrera or Magre)
Hippocampus guttulatus (Seahorse)
Arthropoda palaemon elegans (Shrimp)
Species affected by previous anoxia in the Mar Menor
Atherina boyeri (Chirrete or Pejerrey)
Anguilla anguilla (European eel)
Parablennius sanguinolentus (Lagartina)
Gobius cobitis
(rock goby)
Gobius niger (Goby
black or squat)
symphodus cinereus (porredana gray or bodion)
Mullus barbatus
(mud mullet)
Dalophis imberbis
(sand shingles)
Mycteroperca rubra (Gypsy)
Solea senegalensis (Senegal Sole)
Diplodus annularis (Raspallón)
Diplodus sargus
(white bream)
Diplodus vulgaris
(Mojarra)
Syngnathus typhle
(needle mule)
Syngnathus abaster
(river needle)
Serranus scriba
(Highlander)
Carcinus aestuarii
(green crab)
Arthropoda pachygrapsus marmoratus (Runner or Shoemaker Crab)
Arthropoda callinectes sapidus (Crab or Blue Crab)
Arthropoda acanthonyx lunulatus (Scrab)
Alphanius iberus
(Fartet)
Dicentrarchus labrax (Sea Bass)
sunny sunny
(Common sole)
Lithognathus mormyrus (Herrera or Magre)
Hippocampus guttulatus (Seahorse)
Arthropoda palaemon elegans (Shrimp)
algae bloom
“The Mar Menor is a living system and he says that it hurts with the proliferation of algae, as it did before with jellyfish, oysters or ‘Caulerpa prolifera'”, explains the technician. The sudden heat of the last few days and the calm winds did not help to oxygenate the waters. For the end of the week, the forecasts predict Levante wind “fortunately”, points out María Dolores, who recalls that “the temperature is inversely proportional to the capacity of oxygen to be incorporated into the water”.
To understand what is happening to the Mar Menor, the spokesman for the Committee assures that “this situation is like an iceberg, in which the largest cannot be seen, so these episodes of fish mortality call our attention, but in They are actually a symptom.
The regional government recalls that “it had been warning that the Mar Menor could suffer an episode of anoxia if the urgent and necessary measures recommended by the scientific community were not adopted, and which include stopping the entry of contaminated water through the Albujón boulevard and lower the water table of the aquifer.
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