AN “UNPRECEDENTED” THOUSANDS of dead fish washed up in Rio’s heavily polluted Guanabara Bay this week, deepening fears for the health of competitors at the 2016 Olympics and alarming fishermen.
Detritus including dead animals, television sets, sofas and shoes have all been found in the waters, which will host sailing competitions at next year’s Rio games.
A slew of dead fish was found in October and 12.3 tonnes of small silver fish were removed Wednesday and Thursday alone, according to the local city cleaning service, suggesting clean-up efforts are failing.
Authorities are scrambling to fix the problem but have conceded they will only be able to clean up the bay by 80 percent by the time the games start in August 2016.
Nearly 70 percent of Rio’s waste ends up in Guanabara Bay.
“I flew over the bay yesterday and saw thousands of dead fish,” biologist Mario Moscatelli told AFP. It the same species (shad) as in October, in the same spots.
“We still don’t know if it’s an environmental phenomenon or if it’s because fishermen throw unwanted fish back into the water. But the quantities are unprecedented.”
Janete Gomes of the COMLURB municipal cleaning service on Ilha do Governador beach, in the bay, said that large amounts of dead fish have usually been spotted in the Southern Hemisphere summer.
It’s as though there was a thermal shock in the water that triggers this massive death,” Gomes said.
The Rio state environment agency said no toxic chemicals, or abnormal variations of potential hydrogen (pH), salinity or oxygen were found in the water during 252 tests conducted on 33 separate locations of the bay.
Examinations of the dead fish also failed to reveal a cause for the deaths, it added.
Brazil is spending around $14 billion of public and private money on preparations for the games.
Originally published at 18.25
Good article, thanks Garry. Besides the strength in depth and consistently good results, the pleasing thing for me is the style of play. They get the ball out wide quickly and into the hands of Balaucoune, Stockdale and Lowry etc. Burns is underrated outside Ulster, he plays a massive role in launching the attacks. As for the Ireland call ups, I’ll say nothing.
@Sustainable Hedgehog: I’m happy seeing Burns stay at Kingspan. Every player we send to an extended squad session in Dublin seems to come back injured. Bobby B is the latest.
@Trevor Johnston: the 2017 game in which Zebre beat Ulster was a strange game. Ulster played almost the whole game with 14 players and had a couple of tries disallowed.
@Trevor Johnston: The downside of Ulster players being overlooked by Ireland is that the likes of Cooney might be tempted by a payday in France. McCloskey would be in demand over there too.
@Sustainable Hedgehog: That’s the danger. If JC goes to France I would fully support him. He has been a great servant of the Ulster Rugby and certainly owes nothing to the IRFU.
@Trevor Johnston: 100% agree regarding Cooney. Anyway lads pretty certain that our big name signing for after the WC is PSDT, now that is an exciting addition.
@Kingshu: on top of Kitshoff?
@Patrick Breen: yeah Kitshoff wasnt the big name signing another one in lock/backrow was rumoured to be it.
@Patrick Breen: Vermuen and Carter’s replacements apparently.
@Trevor Johnston: in squad strength terms DV replaced by PSDT, Carter replaced by Roux, and Kitschoff a bonus.
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@Niall Daly: two points well made.