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| Dead herring cover coastal waters near a marine park in Masanhappo District in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Monday. Courtesy of Changwon City Government |
By Ko Dong-hwan
A massive amount of dead adolescent herring has been found near the coastline of the southeastern port city of Changwon on multiple occasions since last Friday, prompting the city government to launch an investigation.
These peculiar incidents in Masan Bay, according to the city government on Monday, started on Sept. 30 when the authority received a report of countless numbers of dead fish floating near a coastal filming site for TV shows in Masanhappo District. The authority received the same report on Oct. 1 and 2 from ports in the Jindong area as well as near a marine park, which are all in Masanhappo as well.
The city government in South Gyeongsang Province found it strange that baby fish of one particular species were repeatedly found in different locations. An official from the Maritime, Harbor and Fishery Bureau under the auspices of the city government said the latest case "doesn't look like a typical example of large numbers of fish dying, which we have seen before."
The National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS) began an on-site investigation on Tuesday. Changwon Mayor Hong Nam-pyo also visited the sites on Monday and urged the city government's fishery bureau officials to find the exact cause of the puzzling issue.
The city government requested Southeastern Sea Fishery Laboratory under the NIFS to investigate the sites to see whether certain abnormal environmental conditions killed the fish, such as a sudden change in seawater temperature or maritime pollution. The city authority sent samples of the fish to the NIFS for a closer examination, the outcome of which will provide a more exact picture of the cause of the deaths.
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| Changwon Mayor Hong Nam-pyo looks at dead herring in the city's coastal waters, Monday. Courtesy of Changwon City Government |
The city government also suspects that the fish could have been secretly dumped. The authority requested local coast guards to investigate and consider it as a possible reason.
Masan Bay previously saw massive amounts of dead fish in the sea in 2009 and 2012. But both incidents saw a variety of species die including flathead mullets and gizzard shads, not just one species.
"Because the dead fish are only herring, we think they didn't die because of polluted water here," said Kim Jong-moon, a senior official from the Maritime, Harbor and Fishery Bureau, raising the probability of the fish being secretly dumped.
Some 200 fishermen and officials from the city government cleared the waters of the dead herring for more than three days. The authority said they picked up almost 20 tons of herrings altogether.
The area where the incident occurred used to be heavily polluted due to the country's rapid economic growth back in the 1970s. But following national efforts to resolve the environmental problem after 2000, the waters became cleaner.
A triathlon held on Sept. 25 in Masan Bay proves that environmental improvement has occurred. The city government said that is why it is less likely that the fish died in the bay due to polluted water but that it is more likely that they were taken from somewhere else and dumped in the bay.
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