[imagesource: thenew_artcollectorsa]

For the last couple of days, I’ve been keeping the doors and windows closed.

I live close enough to the harbour that the stench coming from it couldn’t be ignored.

At first, I thought a red tide had come in, or it had something to do with kelp – I’m not going to pretend to know much about marine biology here –  but it turns out the rotting fish smell is… rotting fish.

Fish have been dying in Cape Town. There are two cases to talk about, the first being a little odd, and the second quite normal.

Let’s start with News24 and the odd one.

As of March 25, 70 bags of dead pufferfish were removed from beaches in Muizenberg and Fish Hoek.

As it stands, nobody is certain why this happened. The water conditions were fine (minimal pollution) and there were no red tide toxins. 

The Department of Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries (DEFF) says that in past incidents of pufferfish mortalities, the cause was mass courtship, spawning, and fighting which sees male pufferfish inflating themselves then getting rolled out of the water by waves or blown out by the wind.

Sounds like a Tuesday at the Shack.

On to the second case, this time at the V&A Waterfront, where hundreds of dead fish are floating in the harbour (hence the smell).

A look at that on Twitter:

Hundreds of dead fish floating in the water near the V&A Waterfront’s Dry Dock in Cape Town @TimesLIVE @CapeTown pic.twitter.com/cyVvJLj6Zl

— Esa Alexander (@ezaap) March 29, 2021

A closer look:

@MassDCR @MassDMF @BostonGlobe @CityOfBoston not sure if this is normal. But all along East Boston’s waterfront there are dead fish. Like a ton. #Eastboston pic.twitter.com/LZxaI2ZZ60

— Guy Dude (@GuyDudeZero) August 2, 2019

This time the cause is quite common, said V&A Waterfront’s Donald Kay in an interview with CapeTalk.

Every year, mullet fish breed near the harbour, and this year the number was quite high.

“The high volume of the fish impacts the levels of oxygen in the water which causes fish to die in great numbers.”

“In effect, you have got a system overload in the harbour.”

Large numbers of mackerel have also been seen entering the harbour which has caused depletion of oxygen as they compete with the existing mullet population for resources.

The lack of oxygen, which causes the fish to die off, also attracts other marine animals like seals, seagulls, and even whales (humpback whales have been spotted at the Waterfront).

V&A Waterfront teams are managing the situation by opening the locks to bring the fresh water in from the canals.

The smell is so bad that one woman fled from her apartment.

On the upside, we’re all wearing masks now, which should help if you have to venture out there for some reason.

Listen to the full interview below if you want to know more:

[sources:news24&capetalk]