Thousands of suffocating fish have been spotted dying off a British beauty spot where the sea has been turned red by what experts believe could be a rare killer bloom of toxic algae.
Warnings have been issued around St Austell Bay, Cornwall, where the mysterious rusty brown seas threaten to poison bathers, infect food and decimate marine life. Shoals of fish appear to be coming to the surface apparently desperate for oxygen. Gulls have been seen enjoying a feeding frenzy this week on dover sole and other flat fish that normally live at the bottom of the ocean but have been floundering at the surface. Fisherman Rob Preston, 53, said that in the last three weeks the water in the picturesque bay popular with swimmers, anglers, and commercial fisherman, has been turning reddish brown and is foamy and sludgy. Mr Preston, chairman of Mevagissey Fisherman’s Association, and a commercial fisherman, said that the last time the phenomenon was seen in the 1970s all the fish and shellfish in St Austell Bay died – and fish were so desperate for oxygen that they flipped themselves onto the beach where hundreds died. It is thought that algal blooms are to blame. Mr Preston said: “For about two or three weeks the water in St Austell Bay has been brown. It’s been getting worse – and especially in the last few days. The last time this happened in summer, something like this, was in the 70s. It was either algae, plankton or something like that.” “We had a period of still weather. Last time there were little flat fish flipping up the beach trying to get out of the water because of the lack of oxygen in the water – everything died – shellfish and fish. I think what happened in the 70s is happening now. “If it happens then everything will die.” …
Dover sole killed by algae at British beach
