Flash flood kills fish in Athalassa lake

OVER 500 fish in died in Nicosia’s Athalassa park lake over the weekend as a surge of rainwater carried large amount of sediment and other matter into the lake, suffocating the wildlife.

Fisheries officer and spokesman for the Fisheries and Marine Research Department, Ioannis Kyriakou said officers retrieved around 500kg of dead fish from the lake.

He added that 95 per cent of the dead fish were catfish, which live nearer the bottom of the lake and cannot take oxygen from the air. Other species, such as coy carp, goldfish and mosquito fish, survived because they were able to take oxygen from the air.

The clean-up operation was a combined effort of the Nicosia Municipality, Fisheries Department and the Forestry Department.

George Christoforou, also at the Fisheries department, confirmed that approximately five hundred fish, each around one kilogram were removed and buried.

Kyriakou stressed that there was no indication pollution was the cause but photographs of the area show officers wading through a sea of rubbish and manmade waste to retrieve the dead animals.

“It is unlikely that pollution caused this but we are testing the area now. It is more likely to be the result of the sediment.”

Asked if he had seen this happen before, he said, “In ten years at the department, I have heard of this happening in dams, but not in a park before.”

Andreas Charalambous, Parks Director for Nicosia Municipality, confirmed that the clean-up operation was completed yesterday afternoon.