Masses of fish wash up dead along 5km of beach in Jambeli, Ecuador

Hundreds of dead fish, plus the blue-footed boobies ATDE last Monday was found in about five kilometers of beach on the island Jambelí. Ministry of Environment staff came to this site and not statements were issued regarding the causes of this fact.

The variety of fish is called chuhueco found and used for the production of fishmeal. “We believe that industrial fishing boat took a shoal of fish and threw the sea,” said Jorge Luis Vaca, president of the Vestry of Jambelí.

Mariana Zambrano, owner of a tourist cabins, said tourists were surprised to observe that amount of fish on the beach. “I got up and watched the dead fish are already three times this year,” he said.

Dwellers fish collected in bags to bury them in a garbage dump. The stench was intense even in areas where there are restaurants and rest areas for tourists.

“We reported this incident to the authorities for a study to be done, but technicians say it is impossible to collect samples because species already have more than 48 hours and are decaying,” said Cruz Amalfi, naval officer.

The ECU-911 system Machala reported that it would be “waste fishing” of bolicheros boats (industrial fishing) within 5 nautical miles solely for artisanal fisheries.

Artisanal fishermen reported seeing these fish from the afternoon of Monday in the coastal belts of Jambelí and Low High. In addition boobies were also found dead on that beach.

Similar cases occurred in 2012, 2013 and this year is the third. Residents believe that variations in temperature and the onset of aguajes would impact these events to occur.

Delegates MAE, the area of ​​Environment of the Prefecture of El Oro, Undersecretariat of Fisheries and the Port Bolivar took samples of water and dead fish.

http://tinyurl.com/njnj5ol