Mauritania: millions of dead fish washed up on the beaches of Nouakchott
Millions of fish washed up on the beaches of Nouakchott, Mauritania, September 2020. RFI / Salem Mejbour
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Specialists in marine environments have been sent from Nouadhibou to take samples and carry out analyzes, the results of which rule out any contamination by chemicals.
Experts favor the hypothesis of a lack of oxygen in this season of high temperature, which would be at the origin of the tragedy.
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With our correspondent in Nouakchott
,
Salem Mejbour
The coastline between Nouakchott and the new artisanal port of Tanit, located more than 60 kilometers to the north, is covered in several places with millions of lifeless fish rejected by the sea. The Mauritanian Institute for Oceanographic and Fisheries Research (IMROP) dispatched its experts from Nouadhibou, the country's second largest city and economic capital.
Among them, we find Dr. Abdoul Dia, head of the institute's marine and coastal environment studies laboratory, who gives us the results of the first analyzes: “
We found that the stranding concerns a single species at 99%. .
This is the black mullet.
And that led us to see the characteristics, specifics and tolerances of this species.
Any species has optimal conditions to develop and among these optimal conditions there is temperature, there is salinity, there is oxygen in the water.
"
A lack of oxygen which has a reason for Abdoul Dia: “
We are in the hot hydrological season, the temperature sometimes reaches up to 33, 34 degrees, really very high temperatures.
"
The Mauritanian Institute for Oceanographic and Fisheries Research will continue its analyzes in order to more precisely determine the origin of the phenomenon.
A phenomenon that has already occurred in 2005 and 2017.
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Mauritania
Wildlife