Huge quantities of dead fish have been found in a reservoir in Poland, near the Oder River, where toxic algae plagued wildlife in the summer of 2022.
More than 14.5 tons of fish have been recovered in recent days from the Dzierzno Duże reservoir, which branches off the Gliwice Canal connected to the river, Marek Wójcik, head of the Silesian regional administration, said on Friday.
Laboratory tests by environmental authorities have shown high concentrations of golden algae in water samples from the reservoir, the official said.
Barriers were placed in the connection between the reservoir and the Gliwice Canal to prevent golden algae and infected fish from entering the canal and from there the Oder.
Wójcik added that more dead fish will be removed from the reservoirs in the coming days.
At the end of July 2022, a mass fish kill occurred in the Oder, which forms part of the border between Germany and Poland.
Experts in both countries concluded that a toxic bloom of the poisonous algae Prymnesium parvum was likely the cause of the phenomenon.
The Gliwice Canal, which opened in 1939, is 41 kilometres long and connects the city of Gliwice in Upper Silesia with the Oder River.
Last summer, a large number of dead fish were also found there, after which local authorities ordered the water to be enriched with oxygen.
