The record heat of these days is causing the death not only of fish in the lagoon, ponds and lakes, but also of blue crabs in the most extreme situations such as in Orbetello.

Here the clam killers, in fact, cannot survive a mix of high water temperatures and poor oxygenation. Blue crabs in Goro in Emilia Romagna, however, no longer having much to eat, raided the algae, thus contributing to keeping the waters clean. The heat of this summer also upsets the rhythms in the water, notes Fedagripesca-Confcooperative, in tracing the map of the main critical issues for the sector from North to South.

The situation is almost out of control in Orbetello, Tuscany, where the local fishermen find themselves having to deal with the death of sea bream, eels and other species suffocated by the excessive heat of the air and water for the eighth consecutive summer. Here the watchword is to implement any measure to deal with what is announced as a dramatic environmental, economic and social emergency. As fishermen and the municipal administration are doing, trying to save what can be saved by fishing the product before it dies. And then taking care of the removal of the carcasses from the waters and their disposal. Red alert also in Sardinia in the Oristano lagoons, where the risk of a fish massacre is high.

In Puglia, to aggravate the situation relating to the production of mussels (in Taranto, according to operators, 80% is in danger), in addition to the very high sea temperatures, the problem, as reported by Fedagripesca, is also that of the lack of a storage chain that does not allow you to collect the product and save it while waiting for sales requests. In internal waters in Veneto and Emilia Romagna, the waters are characterized by low salinity due to the flooding of the Po, after the winter snowfalls and abundant rains; just a year ago, in these areas, farmers went fishing for algae to save clams from an excessive proliferation that was suffocating the lagoons. Meanwhile, at sea, fishermen in Emilia Romagna in Porto Garibaldi complain of having to consume more fuel to chase the fish that go further out to save themselves from the heat near the coast. «We cannot remedy climate events - states the vice president of Fedagripesca-Confcooperative, Paolo Tiozzo - but we must contain the damage, preserving lakes, lagoons and ponds, with periodic maintenance interventions. Fishermen too often find themselves having to fight this battle alone with daily gestures such as cleaning the water from algae before starting fishing, but this is no longer enough."

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