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Staggering: Thousands of fish lie floating on the top of the water near the Citra Lake in Jakarta, -Indonesia
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December 24, 2015 - JAKARTA, INDONESIA - Fishermen have been left struggling in Indonesia after thousands of fish died near the Citra Lake, leaving scientists and officials baffled by the cause of their dramatic deaths.
Hundreds of tons of dead fish were found floating in waters near Jakarta with torrential rains around the area being blamed for their deaths. The department of fishery have suggested that the heavy rainfall may have caused a sudden rise in the water temperature.
The change in conditions is thought to have been behind the decimation of the fish population in the local water, leaving fishermen and local volunteers forced to clean up the waters in order to ward off further deaths.
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| Devastating loss of life: One fisherman holds up one of the larger fish which died in the water recently |
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| Mysterious circumstance: It is unclear what caused the fish deaths, with the department of fishery suggesting it could be due to a change in the temperature of the water |
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| Helping hand: One helper uses a basic net to slowly fish the animals out of the water in a bid to clear the lake of the dead fish |
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| Needing plenty of help: A small team of volunteers dressed in matching orange tops begin to remove some of the dead fish |
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| Shocking scenes: Some of the boats struggle against the sheer volume of dead animals in the water near Citra Lake |
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| Worrying: One Greenpeace campaigner said the deaths were related to a rise in water from contaminated rivers |
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| Dirty work: Wearing a pair of wellington boats, the workers have been wading through the sticky mud and removing the dead fish |
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| Tough work on the water: One of the boats struggles to manage the vast quantity of dead fish flowing in the water near Citra Lake |
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| Tragedy down by the lake: A sample of the dead fish are bagged up |
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| A long day ahead: The workers have been struggling to deal with the vast amount of fish which have died in the water |
A lack of oxygen for the fish may have caused the massacre and experts are taking samples of the dead fish to determine their cause of death.
'In the morning, I found just a few dozen dead fish [floating on the water] but as hours went by, the number grew to hundreds and it created a foul stench,' Bambang, a 47-year-old fisherman at Muara Angke port told the
Jakarta Globe.
'It is not unusual that many fish die, like this. But this year, there has been an increase both in the frequency and the volume,' he said. -
Daily Mail.
