In connection with the fish kill in the Oder, Poland’s government speaks of false reports from Germany. “Warning, another fake news is being spread in Germany!!! Pesticides and herbicides. In Poland, the substance was tested and found to be below the limit of quantification, ie with no effects on fish or other animals, and no connection to fish kills”, Poland’s Environment Minister Anna Moskwa wrote on Twitter on Saturday evening. The substances have not been detected in fish, Moskva said in another tweet, “An unjustified attack on agriculture. First industry, now agriculture? What next?”
In the past few days, masses of dead fish have been discovered and collected in the Oder on the Polish and German sides. The exact cause has not yet been clarified.
Brandenburg’s Ministry of the Environment announced on Saturday that high concentrations of a pesticide containing the active ingredient 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid had been found in samples taken at the Frankfurt (Oder) measuring point between August 7th and 9th. However, it can be assumed that the detected dose was not immediately fatal to fish. The active ingredient is used, for example, to combat weeds.
Live fish have been observed again in western Pomerania
Poland’s national conservative PiS government is under pressure because Polish authorities were hesitant to respond to the first indications of the fish kill. In Germany, too, complaints were made that Polish authorities had not complied with the internationally agreed information chains. Representatives of the PiS repeatedly responded with anti-German tones – and with attacks on the Polish opposition. They assume that they willingly accept the German narrative about possible causes of the environmental catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the statement by the regional head of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Zbiegniew Bogucki, gives some hope. Accordingly, living fish can be seen again. “Where we recovered tons of dead fish a few days ago, live fish have now appeared,” Bogucki wrote on Twitter on Saturday. However, due to a lack of oxygen in the water, many fish are on the verge of suffocation and swim close to the surface. The politician posted a video showing this. Bogucki wrote in another tweet that he had now contacted the local fire brigade to try to aerate the water with pumps.
The Environment Ministry in Brandenburg assumes that the environmental disaster had several causes. The excessive concentration of the pesticide over several days certainly had an impact on animals, plants and microorganisms. A toxic species of algae could also be a factor in fish kills, scientists say. Various other substances are also being studied.