The port city of Volos took the measure after tons of dead fish piled up on the coast and in rivers in recent days.
Greece’s central port city of Volos declared a month-ong state of emergency Saturday after thousands of freshwater fish died, the country’s main news agency reported.
Authorities have promised extra cash and other support to clean up the dead fish, in what is the area’s second environmental disaster in a year.
Why have so many fish died?
Authorities said the freshwater fish died as a result of devastating floods that hit Greece’s central Thessaly region last year.
The floods refilled a nearby lake that had been drained in 1962 a bid to fight malaria, swelling it to three times its normal size.
The lake waters have since receded drastically, forcing the fish toward the Volos port that empties into the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea.
But they cannot survive the salty sea waters and thousands of them have clogged the waters around the port.
What are authorities doing?
The Civil Protection Emergency measures will allow local authorities to commit funding and other resources to finish the clean up of the fish, which is already underway, the Athens News Agency reported.
On Tuesday alone, authorities removed 57 tons of the dead fish washed up on beaches near Volos.
Ertnews channel reported that two boats are due to continue the recovery on Saturday.
mm/xx (AFP, DW sources)
Source: dw.com