Mass fish die-off hits al-Sulaymaniyah
Shafaq News/ Thousands of fish died suddenly in several farms in Qader Karam subdistrict of Chamchamal in al-Sulaymaniyah province, Iraqi Kurdistan, causing severe financial losses for local fish farmers.
The cause of the mass die-off remains unknown.
'We lost massive quantities of fish in a very short time,' fish farmer Yousif Khurshid told Shafaq News on Wednesday. 'The damage runs into millions of Iraqi dinars. We're waiting for an urgent response from the authorities.'
Khurshid said panic has spread among fish farmers in the area, especially given that similar incidents have occurred repeatedly without any lasting solutions or proper water quality monitoring.
Sherko Gharib, another affected farmer, described the situation as a disaster. 'Fish farming is our main source of income,' he said. 'Losing entire harvests without warning has pushed us into a very difficult financial position.'
Gharib added that the affected ponds contained fish that were nearly ready for market, worsening the losses. He urged environmental and veterinary authorities to immediately dispatch technical teams to test water and fish samples and identify the cause.
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