A town on northern Mexico’s Pacific coast saw its beaches carpeted with dead fish after what experts describe as a toxic algae bloom.
Officials in the northern state of Sinaloa said this week that dead fish started washing up on beaches around the hamlet of El Maviri around July 25.
About a ton of fish carcasses was trucked away, and some were kept for testing. Randy Ross, an inspector with Mexico’s health standards agency, said a cyanobacteria was found in the fish.
But researchers said they are also looking at the possibility that high water temperatures — which spiked to as much as 95 degrees (35 Celsius) in recent weeks — might have contributed to the die-off.
Biologist Rosalba Alonso Rodríguez of Mexico’s National Autonomous University said it would be the first time that this particular species of toxic algae was found in that area.
She said high water temperatures can reduce the amount of oxygen in the water, potentially harming fish.
