About 150 kilograms of dead fish have been caught from the Gliwice Canal (Silesian Voivodeship) since Thursday – inform Wody Polskie. Services have been working on site for several days, and the Opole Voivode has convened a crisis team. Analysis of collected water samples and monitoring of the Odra River are ongoing. Voivodes and services of neighboring voivodeships were also informed about the matter.
According to the information provided in the communication by the Polish Waters in Gliwice, the first dead fish were noticed by the employees of the Waters on Thursday (September 7) during a control cruise in the 2nd and 4th section of the Gliwice Canal (Nowa Wieś and Rudziniec sluices). That day, they fished six kilograms of dead fish out of the water. By Sunday – a total of about 150 kilograms.
Dead fish in the Gliwice Canal
According to Polish Waters, monitoring of the situation in the waters of the Gliwice Canal and the Kędzierzyn Canal has been ongoing since Thursday. Every day, the services come across more dead fish. The largest number was on Saturday, when a total of about 100 kilograms of dead fish were caught in the second section of the waterway (Sławięcice lock). Single pieces were also found in section III of the waterway (Rudziniec lock).
On Sunday, more dead fish were fished out of the water. “From early morning to morning, employees operating the locks of the Gliwice Canal retrieved about 35 kilograms of dead fish from the water in the second section of the waterway and about a kilogram in the fourth section” – we read in a message posted on the website of the Gliwice branch of Polish Waters.
According to the services, in other locations of the Gliwice Canal, in the Kędzierzyn Canal and in the Odra River in the section located in the management of the Polish Waters in Gliwice, there are no dead fish.
Dead fish were found in the Gliwice Canal, the reservoir is monitored
The voivode convened a crisis team
On Sunday, the Opole Voivode Sławomir Kłosowski announced via social media that another meeting of the Voivodship Crisis Management Team with the participation of services, inspections and voivodeship guards and RZGW Gliwice has been convened.
“As part of mutual warning and cooperation, the province governors of Silesia and Lower Silesia, as well as the Provincial Crisis Management Centers and the Provincial Inspectorate for Environmental Protection in the neighboring provinces, were informed about the situation” – said Sławomir Kłosowski.
He also informed that he recommended “permanent, daily and extended with the presence of ichthyotoxin tests of water samples in the second section of the Gliwice Canal”, and in order to prevent the potential spread of the golden alga, “the mouth of the Kędzierzyn Canal to the Gliwice Canal will be separated with a dam with a biostabilizer”. The services are to continue constant and detailed monitoring of the waters of the entire Opole section of the Gliwice Canal.
Main photo source: Polish Waters in Gliwice