A fish cemetery: they investigate a strange phenomenon in the Montelindo de Chaco river

The Alto Paraná registers a historical drop as a consequence of the closure of dams in Brazil, which left the Iguazú Falls without water. In Chaco the situation is not much better: the montelindo river it became a fish graveyard.

The shocking situation was recorded by a fisherman who traveled the Montelindo River and found a thousand dead or dying animals. The man showed what was happening on social media and expressed his concern.

The residents detailed that among the dead fish there are surubí, mand’i, pacú, vogue and, even, yacarés.

This river divides the departments of Presidente Hayes, Chaco and San Pedro, and flows into Paraguay. The media in the neighboring country have been warning for more than a month about this situation.

The Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (Mades) was present at the site and extracted water samples and defined that this event occurred as a consequence of a organic decomposition which caused lack of oxygen in the water. In addition, it ruled out the presence of chemical or agrochemical products from the fields.

Faced with the complaints presented, a prosecutorial committee led by Ariel González also intervened.

In dialogue with a local radio, the Chaco authorities explained that they detected a lot of decomposing organic matter for the vegetation and the dead fish themselves. And they explained that the samples taken were referred to the Forensic Laboratory and the National Institute of Technology, Standardization and Metrology (Intn) to discover what caused this increase in dead animals in the river.

Fish mortality is recorded about eight kilometers from the mouth of the Paraguay river, in Presidente Hayes. And, a few days ago, something similar happened in the Siete Punta river, a little further north.

In a dialogue with Paraguayan television, the director of Fiscalizations of Mades, said: “At first sight we observed that (the fish) had protruding eyes, which makes us boast that died from lack of oxygen“

And he detailed: “We saw that the waters were altered, this is because leaves rot inside the channel and is focused on the place and also had the aquatic vegetation that closed the entire channel. That also caused them to somehow lock up and die (the fish) in place. “

Finally, the official ruled out that chemical material has been poured into the waters. “It is surrounded by rooms, with that we ruled out that it was due to spills from any factory or industries because there are no such activities in the area“, specific.

Regarding the recomposition of the waters, fishermen of that area of ​​the Chaco will be responsible for clean the Montelindo river. If the weather helps, the rain and the flood of the Pilcomayo river will help normalize the channel.