After heavy rain, 130 kilograms of fish found dead at Phuket lake

After heavy rainfall, around 130 kilogrammes of fish were found dead at Phuket‘s Nai Harn Lake in Rawai. Fisheries officials inspected the lake earlier this week after receiving reports of many fish found dead.

Upon inspection, it was discovered that heavy rain had washed dirt and sediment into the lake, polluting the water and reducing the available oxygen, Phuket Fisheries Chief Sittiphon Mueangsong told The Phuket Express.

The overall weather in Phuket has also been sweltering hot, causing the temperature in the lake to immediately change. These factors resulted in a substantial fish kill, according to Sittiphon.

Rawai Mayor Aroon Salas told The Phuket News that the water’s pH level had changed dramatically. The heavy rains resulted in a large influx of freshwater into the lake, which is usually brackish due to the small channel across Nai Harn Lake that connects the lake to the sea. Mayor Aroon said…

“This has never happened before when it comes to the beginning of the rainy season. This year, the tide was very low and it was very dry before the rain came.”

Mayor Aroon said he ordered municipality workers to excavate the channel connecting the lake to the sea, hoping to restore the lake water to its normal salinity by allowing more saltwater to enter the lake at high tide.

The Phuket Fisheries Department has removed the dead fish from the lake.

Meanwhile, Mayor Aroon said that he inspected the lake on Tuesday and yesterday, and the water is already improving. He added that there were no more dead fish in the water, and the fish he could see were swimming normally.