Thousands rally to ‘hug’ Spain’s dying Mar Menor lagoon

Tens of hundreds of individuals fashioned a human chain round Spain’s crisis-hit Mar Menor lagoon on Saturday in a present of mourning after tonnes of useless fish washed ashore, organisers and officers stated.

One of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons, the Mar Menor has lengthy been a draw for vacationers however is slowly dying on account of agricultural air pollution, with thousands and thousands of fish and crustaceans dying over the previous fortnight.

Images of useless fish have traumatised this southeastern coastal area, with locals and vacationers turning out to hitch the mass mourning.

Footage from the scene confirmed large traces of individuals, many in beachwear, holding palms alongside the waterfront on Alcazares seashore, which stretches six kilometres and different a part of the lagoon’s 73-kilometre (45-mile) shoreline.

“It was an act of mourning for the death of the animals… we wanted people to somehow ask their forgiveness for the barbarity we’ve inflicted on them,” Jesus Cutillas, one of many organisers advised AFP.

“For days, we have witnessed the dying of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of fish and seeing all that pointless dying hurts.

“The aim was to express our regret for what has happened and show our determination that it never happens again.”

Many individuals wore black, others held up banners studying: SOS Mar Menor.

Organisers estimated as much as 70,000 individuals joined the protest.

15 tonnes of fish, algae

Experts say the fish suffocated as a consequence of an absence of oxygen attributable to a whole bunch of tonnes of nitrates from fertilisers leaking into the waters, inflicting a phenomenon often known as eutrophication which collapses aquatic ecosystems.

On Monday, regional officers stated that they had eliminated 4.5-5.0 tonnes of fish, however by Saturday that had risen threefold to fifteen tonnes of fish and algae.

“The 15 tonnes of dead fish and biomass (removed from the shore) show that this is indeed an environmental catastrophe and emergency. We need immediate help for the ecosystem,” tweeted Noelia Arroyo, mayor of the close by city of Cartagena.

Pedro Garcia, director of regional conservation organisation ANSE, stated this week that environmental groups feared the marine dying toll was greater than twice the determine given on Monday by the authorities.

“Within that 15-tonne figure, there will certainly be at least two or three tones of dead vegetation, but we have no way of knowing for sure,” he advised AFP on Saturday.

At the lagoon on Wednesday, Environment Minister Teresa Ribera accused the regional authorities of turning a blind eye to farming irregularities within the Campo de Cartagena, an enormous space of intensive agriculture that has grown tenfold over the previous 40 years.

But agricultural teams insist they comply scrupulously with environmental laws.

© 2021 AFP