Greek Port City Declares State of Emergency Due to Dead Fish Inundation

The central Greek port city of Volos has declared a state of emergency following a massive influx of dead fish, which local residents fear could jeopardize their livelihoods, according to a state news agency report on Saturday.

The climate ministry's secretary-general for civil protection, Vassilis Papageorgiou, has issued a month-long emergency declaration. This measure will provide the necessary funding and resources to expedite the cleanup of the Pagasetic Gulf port, where tons of dead fish have accumulated along the coastline and rivers, as reported by the Athens News Agency.

This marks the second environmental crisis to afflict the Volos port, located a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of Athens, following devastating floods in the Thessaly region last year.

Those floods had replenished a nearby lake that had been drained in 1962 to combat malaria, expanding it to three times its usual size.

"Following the autumn storms, Daniel and Elias, approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of plains in Thessaly were flooded, and various freshwater fish were carried by rivers to the sea," explained Dimitris Klaudatos, a professor of agriculture and environment at the University of Thessaly.

Since then, the lake waters have significantly receded, pushing the freshwater fish towards the Volos port, where they cannot survive as they enter the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea.

As reported on Tuesday, authorities have removed 57 tons of dead fish from the beaches near Volos.

Most of the dead fish inundating the Pagasetic have been collected, with two boats finalizing the process on Saturday, according to Ertnews channel.

Special nets have been installed at the Xiria River's mouth to contain the vast number of dead fish.

Tourist visits to the area have plummeted by nearly 80 percent since last year's floods, according to the local restaurant and bar association.

"The situation with these dead fish could be the death knell for us," remarked Stefanos Stefanou, the association's president, earlier this week. "Who will want to visit our city after this?"