MANGALORE : Thousands of dead fish were found on the sea shores at Kotepura near Ullal on Thursday, reportedly due to the pollution of the sea waters.
According to reports, as many as 8000 fish ( the local variety of Thede) were found lying on the shores by Thursday afternoon. However so far none of the researchers from the Fisheries College in Mangalore which avails crores of grants from the government for such studies, have visited the place.
Already the MRPL and the BASF plants near Suratkal release their wastes including toxic effluents to the sea. There have even been occasions when the colour of the sea water near the shores changed colour due to the impact of the effluents. Tar layers were also found on the Chitrapura sea shores some time back. But this is probably the first instance when thousands of fish have perished here. There probably is a reason for this. Ever since MRPL began to release its effluents into the sea in 1992, the coastline from Meenakaliya to Sasihitlu has almost been rendered barren with fish catch reducing substantially. As the fish from here had migrated elsewhere, there were no reports of death of fish in the area. Moreover as the industry effluents do not penetrate into deep sea, they get settled near the sea shores itself. But there is every possibility of the effluents mixed with water moving in the direction of the wind and this probably might have led to the contamination of the sea water at Kotepura, resulting in the death of the fish.
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