Bigeye scad dying and washing ashore in Kendhoo lagoon

There has been sudden deaths of bigeye scads, with their carcasses washing ashore in B. Kendhoo.

Kendhoo Council President Ibrahim Abdul Rahman told Mihaaru that there have been a vast increase in bigeye scads surrounding the island within the last four months and that people have taken to fishing for them as well.

However, there has been an increase of dead bigeye scads washing ashore from four days ago until now.

Ibrahim has said that they are still looking into the reason why the fish are suddenly dying.

Some residents say that these fish are dying due to people dumping cooking water used to cook sea cucumbers into the ocean.

However, Ibrahim has said that this is not enough of a reason for large amounts of these fish to die and beach themselves and that there has to be some other reason as well.

He said that one of the reasons could be due to a drop in oxygen levels in the water from massive amounts of these fish migrating into the island port.

Ibrahim said that due to the constructed revetments, these fish might be having a tough time trying to find ways out of the port. These fish probably only have the use of a narrow part of the canal for entering and leaving, he went on to say.

"It is probably due to the change in temperature and waves as well," he stated.

"There has been an instance where a lot of fish have entered the Kendhoo lagoon in the past in a short amount of time, while it was being dredged and that a lot of fish have died due to that as well."

The council has begun work on cleaning up the beaches and removing the dead fish. Ibrahim has stated that this issue has been reported to the EPA.