It's a real ecological disaster: hundreds of fish have died from asphyxiation since October 25 in the Loing canalin Seine-et-Marne (Île-de-France), local authorities announced. The reason? Pollution… with sugar! How is this possible? Can we find those responsible? Explanation sequence.
A candy singled out in 2019
It is the part of the canal between Souppes-sur-Loing and Bagneaux-sur-Loing which was polluted: “The analyzes demonstrated the presence of sucrose in water. But investigations have not yet been able to establish where it comes from.“, declared the secretary general of the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne, Sébastien Lime.
A investigation is still in progress, with the Fontainebleau public prosecutor's office, but in the meantime, the services of the French Office for Biodiversity and the Inspection of Classified Facilities have reviewed all industrial facilities located near the canal. But these inspections did not not yet possible to identify the origin and the person responsible of this sugar pollution.
This is not not the first time that such pollution is observed. In 2019, a watercourse was polluted in Seine-et-Marne in Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne (further to the North), but this time the person responsible had been identified: the pollution came at the time from a sugar factory located upstreamafter a crack on the dike of the skimming basin, according to the Office for the Analysis of Industrial Risks and Pollution.
Local fishermen in tears…
It was the mayor of Bagneaux-sur-Loing, Claude Jamet, who raised the alarm on October 25, after seeing “big fish looking for oxygen and fish corpses on the surface”. The councilor, who suspects “industrial pollution”, wishes to file a complaint against tons of dead fish, including carp over 20 years old which will never swim here again…
The day after the alert, October 26, operations were carried out to remove dead fish from the canal beds and above all preserve the fish still alive. From now on, the teams will work on emptying the reaches, the parts of the canal located between two locksall for 25 days.
The dead fish were collected then placed in bins by volunteers from associations, local fishermen, often in tearsor even local residents. There are carp, perch, pike, eels, catfish, roach and catfish in particular.… The extent of the mortality has not yet been assessed because a large quantity of dead fish is still at the bottom of the canal.
While waiting to know who is responsible, the Seine-et-Marne federation for fishing and the protection of the aquatic environment will file a complaint quickly to prevent such events from happening again.
Article reference:
Sugar pollution: death by asphyxiation strikes hundreds of fish in Seine-et-Marne – Geo
