Fish kill scare along Kuwait bay

Some of the dead fish found near the bay

KUWAIT: Fish have been dying in large numbers along Kuwait bay. This incident serves as an indicator of pollution or a major imbalance in marine environment, instilling fear of a possible fish kill. According to a local Arabic daily, Salah Al-Mudhi, General Director of Environment Public Authority (EPA) has accused people of spreading rumors most of the time. He said that dead fish could have been dumped into the sea by fishermen because most belonged to the ‘Giant Sea Catfish,’ species.

KuwaitTimes/To assess the situation better, the EPA has requested the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) to investigate the cause and supervise the area. “Since last Friday, when EPA sought our assistance, we have begun daily inspection tours in the Kuwait Bay area, noticing that the number of fish have reduced drastically compared to Friday. We are still inspecting to make sure that it is not ‘fish kill’ and prevent more cases from occurring,” Sharik Awadh, PR of PAAAFR told Kuwait Times yesterday.

“We aim to limit the problem and prevent fish kill in huge numbers and different kinds of fish. For this purpose, we are conducting daily marine inspection in different areas, not only at the bay. We do not know the reason behind these hundreds of types of dead fish, although we saw red tide twice, which may be the cause of fish kill. There are different reasons for the fish kill besides red tide. It may be pollution or high weather temperature. So, we are observing the sea. I think that the situation is under control even now,” he added.

Awadh did not agree with the possibility that the dead fish were dumped by fishermen. “It is not realistic that the fishermen will throw such a huge number of dead fish into the sea. Furthermore, if the fishermen dump them, it would have been near the bay (Niga), a popular fishing spot, not deep inside the sea. So there is definitely another reason. But I’m optimistic and I hope it will not worsen,” he concluded.

Khalid Al-Hajiri, Chairman of the Green Line Environment Group – Kuwait (GLEG) noted that the Group will collect information about the phenomenon. “To ascertain the exact reason, we have to do investigate the cause. We know that now one kind of fish has been affected, and we have to go back to history of fish kills in Kuwait, the area, circumstance and other situations. There is weakness in the Kuwait Bay area and in the past years, we have witnessed some fish kills cases which were not announced or published. So we need a few days to arrive at the final answer,” he pointed out.