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Dead fish seen at sea.
A preliminary report on the cause of the mass amount of fish found dead at the Umhlali River mouth on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast suggests that there was an oxygen deficiency in the water, due to high temperatures from a heatwave, coupled with low tide.
This forced the Kwadukuza Municipality to close its bathing beaches at Tinley Manor and Shaka’s Cove Tidal Pool in Salt Rock on Friday.
“Thousands and thousands of fish washed up. They were swimming out of the water trying to breathe air. So yeah, a very sad thing to see, but looks like mother nature took its course,” says a resident in Tinley Manor.
Another resident Patrick Kotze says,” It was such a sad site to see, seeing literally thousands and thousands of fish wash up from small fish to big fish to the shrimp to the crabs. Everything was just dying.”
Bridget Shange from the KwaDukuza Municipality says they are still awaiting a full report.
“Immediately, water samples were taken by an independent laboratory just to assess the water and check possible pollutants. Preliminary findings indicated elevated sea temperatures, while we’re still waiting for the full chemical analysis report on Friday, a second incident was reported at Shaka’s Rock tidal pool again. Initial assessment suggests that it could be due to low tide, high temperatures and low oxygen levels.”
