The phenomenon of fish deaths in the port of Sidon in southern Lebanon has returned to the fore again, after it floated on the surface of the waters in the historic fishermen’s port, adjacent to the historic Sidon Citadel, an estimated amount of 200 kilograms of small dead fish, which reinforces fears of contamination of sea water with sewage water for the city and its surroundings. Hence the fish kills.
“We cannot determine the source of the pollution, and this is not the first time this case has occurred, but it was limited in time and quantity,” the captain of the fishermen’s syndicate, Nazih Sonbol, told Sky News Arabia.
Sonbol suggested that “the cause of the fish’s death came as a result of small factories and citizens throwing some chemicals and detergents into the sewage, which flows into the sea without effective treatment, which leads to the death of fish.”
He continued: “There is a possibility that some fishermen who set up illegal fishing nets that catch small fish and are not sold in the fish market, they get rid of them by throwing them in the port after they have been caught again, so they float on the water and create a harmful scene that deters fish market customers from buying for fear of pollution”.
He added, “The reason for the dead fish to gather in the port is because it is semi-closed and the waves do not directly hit it,” expressing his hope that citizens will stop throwing chemicals and insecticides into the waters that eventually pour into the sea, especially since the monitoring is weak and there are no penalties imposed by the control. on the offenders.
In turn, the captain of the Divers Syndicate in Lebanon, Muhammad Al-Sarji, expected that “the dead fish have been thrown in the port by the fishermen after their depression in the fish market.”
Al-Sarji stressed, “The need to adhere to the conditions for preserving the marine environment and the use of legal fishing nets, which do not catch small fish that are undesirable species to buy, because the used nets eliminate small fish and lead to their scarcity and high price at this particular time.”
It is noteworthy that the port of Sidon, the southern coastal city, constitutes the touristic waterfront of the city famous for its monuments and cafes, and provides livelihood for hundreds of fishermen from the city and the neighborhood.
The fish wealth in Lebanon has declined dramatically in recent years due to overfishing and cracker fishing, which harms young fish.