Hundreds of fish die in all coasts of Sabana de la Mar and Miches

Hundreds of fish of all species died and were dragged last Friday to the coastal coast of the municipality of Sabana de la Mar in Hato Mayor until reaching Miches, in El Seibo, for unknown causes.

The person in charge of the Environment of Samaná, Frank Rodríguez, said that they have already reported the situation to the National Directorate of Protected Areas to see if they will send a technical commission to study the case since it is also happening on all the coasts of the municipality of Miches.

“We don’t know what is causing this problem, we have already reported it to see if they will send us the technicians and evaluate what is causing the death of the fish,” he said.

He explained that in previous years the same situation has occurred and said that maybe it is the result of some chemical that has been thrown or because of the seaweed that is in great quantity and is suffocating the fish.

He said that since last Friday, they had noticed a large number of fish of all species dying.

The alderman of Sabana de la Mar, Luis López, supposes that this problem is caused by chemicals that reach the sea through the Yuna river, and this causes the fish to go “crazy” and die.

He assured that the main livelihood of Sabana de la Mar as a coastal municipality is fishing; therefore, he understands that the situation will significantly affect the local economy.

“Fishermen, fish market owners and parents of families who live off fishing are with their hand on their heads right now,” he explained.

He specified that many “criminal” methods are also destroying the coastal marine resources of Los Haitises and the whole area of Sabana de la Mar, such as shoveling and carbide explosives.

He added that this explosion causes the fish to burst and float away dead.

Case in Barahona
Last October, thousands of fish were also found on pier 5 of the seaport of Barahona. The Ministry of Environment concluded that the mortality was caused by the depletion of oxygen in the water due to the high decomposition of organic matter, including sargassum, which impacted the poor quality of the water in the area.

“The main effect of mortality is environmental hypoxia (oxygen depletion), which was due to factors such as a sustained increase in dissolved organic loads, leachates, blooming or accumulation of algae and eutrophication processes, due to excess nutrients in the water,” states the report made by the technical commission.