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Dead fish clog waters around Greece’s Volos por, as weather changes cause mass die-off and a “strong stench”
Volos, Greece — More than 100 tons of dead fish were collected in and around the port of Volos in central Greece after a mass die-off linked to extreme weather fluctuations, authorities said Thursday. The dead freshwater fish filled the bay 200 miles north of Athens, and nearby rivers.
Water levels in the area were swollen by floods in 2023, followed by months of severe drought.
The die-off has hit local businesses along the seafront, reducing commercial activity by 80% in the past three days, according to Volos’ Chamber of Commerce.
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Fishing trawlers have been chartered by the regional authorities, along with earthmovers, to scoop the dead fish out of the sea and load them onto trucks bound for an incinerator.
The fish came from Lake Karla in central Greece, a body of water drained in the early 1960s and restored in 2018 to combat the effects of drought.
“There are millions of dead fish all the way from Lake Karla and 20 kilometers (12 miles) eastward,” Anna Maria Papadimitriou, the deputy regional governor of the central Thessaly area, told state-run television.
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“Right now, there is a huge effort underway to clean up the millions of dead fish that have washed along the shorelines and riverbanks… an effort that involves multiple contractors,” she said.
Water levels rose abruptly in fall 2023 during a deadly storm that caused extensive flooding in central Greece, but have since receded due to low rainfall and successive summer heat waves.
The mayor of Volos lashed out at the regional authority, accusing it of acting too slowly, while the city’s Chamber of Commerce said it was taking legal action to seek damages after the sever drop in commercial activity.
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“Businesses along the seafront, particularly in the catering industry, are now suspending operations,” the chamber said in a statement. “A strong stench along the seafront is repulsive to both residents and visitors … delivering a severe blow to tourism in Volos.”
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Those aren’t early Halloween decorations: giant Joro spiders, known for parachuting through the air, were spotted in Pennsylvania this month.
Six of the spiders were reported on Sept. 5, according to Joro Watch, an interactive monitoring program developed by the University of Georgia’s Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. An entomologist visited Pennsylvania’s Bucks County and verified there were adult Joro spiders there.
What are Joro spiders?
Joro spiders, which are an invasive species native to Asia, can shoot out long strands of silk that get caught by the wind, carrying them through the air. Some have called them parachuting spiders because of the way they move.
They create large webs that can be up to 10 feet wide, according to PennState Extension.
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Adult females are large and brightly colored, with legs up to 4 inches long, according to experts. Males are much smaller. While female Joro spiders are about an inch long, male Joro spiders have a body length of less than half an inch.
Female Joro spiders, known for their yellow and gray abdomens, will lay egg sacs holding 400 to 500 eggs.
The spread of Joro spiders — where are they headed?
Joro spiders were first found in the U.S. in Georgia in 2014, but experts believe that the invasive species may have arrived as early as 2010. Joro spiders have spread across the South in the years since. They’ve now been reported across more than half a dozen states.
In 2022, PennState Extension said that it was likely Joro spiders “will be able to spread throughout eastern North America at least as far north as Pennsylvania and possibly further in warmer, coastal areas.” Researchers there thought it may take 35 years for Joro spiders to reach southeastern Pennsylvania, but said there were two ways Joro spiders could reach Pennsylvania more quickly.
One was if young and small Joro spiders were transported tens to hundreds of miles through the air after being picked up by strong winds and storms. The other way would be if they were transported to new areas by humans.
José R. Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University’s Lockwood Lab and the president of Protectors of Pine Oak Woods on Staten Island, in April told SI Live that “it is a matter of when, not if” the spiders arrive in New York and New Jersey.
Are Joro spiders dangerous?
While Joro spiders do have venom, their venom is weak. They also have small fangs, which makes it difficult to pierce human skin.
“We have no evidence that they’ve done any damage to a person or a pet,” Clemson University assistant professor Dave Coyle, who has a doctorate in entomology, previously said.
If a bite does happen, PennState Extension said that it’s less painful than a bee sting, and any localized pain and redness would quickly resolve.
