Marsascala residents yesterday woke up to the stench of hundreds of dead fish floating in the saline marshland known as Il-Magħluq.
“I was out on my morning walk and was shocked when I looked over the marshland. The area was ridden with a congestion of dead fish floating on the surface,” said Brian Blackburn.
The local council was immediately informed and beach cleaners were engaged to clear up the area. However, only the dead fish – thought to be bream – caught against the silted-up areas in the middle of the pond could be removed.
I was shocked when I looked over the marshland
“You need a boat to remove all the dead fish strewn all over the place,” said an eyewitness.
It is not yet known whether the fish died from lack of oxygen circulation in the brackish water pool – something that had happened a couple of years ago – or whether they were dumped there overnight.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority, responsible for the Natura 2000 site, was analysing the fish to determine their source, a spokesman said.
It was deemed impossible for the bream to have made their way from the sea through the narrow pipes that connect it to the pond.
Marsascala mayor Mario Calleja said that, although the fish were seawater, it could very well mean they came in through the interconnecting pipe when they were still young and then, because of lack of water circulation, suffered from oxygen deprivation.
“There are pipes beneath the road running between the ponds and the sea but the design is not good and the pipes are not large enough,” said Mr Calleja.
It was not a matter of regular maintenance to cater for the flow that was required by such a habitat, he said, because the pipes would immediately clog up anyway.
“The pipes had to be replaced by proper channels,” said Mr Calleja, stressing that Marsascala was waiting for Mepa to take action.
The planning authority confirmed that an application for alterations to be made at Il-Magħluq, filed in 2011, was still pending. This May, the Infrastructure Ministry had requested another year-long extension “because the architects want to consider alternative options to enhance water circulation in the area”.
Earlier this year, Nature Trust Malta urged the authorities to relocate scores of ducks at Il-Magħluq as they were not a natural part of the habitat and were damaging the ecology of the area.
Last year, primary schoolchildren petitioned politicians to save an important saline marshland in Marsascala from litter, garbage and duck droppings.
What is Il-Magħluq?
Il-Magħluq, originally two interconnected fish ponds lined with layered stones, is home to peculiar salt-tolerant marsh communities and critically endangered protected species that include the Maltese killifish and wetland plants such as rushes.
The brackish water found there forms as a result of freshwater from the surrounding fields and rainwater entering the pool and mixing with the seawater that enters through the connection under the road.
It is one of the only two remaining marshes in the south of Malta.
Workers get to grips with the smelly task of clearing away the dead fish. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier