Toxic planktons kill thousands of fishes in Bali: official

Denpasar (ANTARA News) - Toxic planktons are to blame for the mass death of thousands of fishes on some beaches of Tabanan district in Bali, an official said here Thursday.

"The fishes` mass death is a natural phenomenon caused by the El-Nino-induced storm which moved from the Pacific Ocean to the Indonesian waters. The El-Nino-induced storm triggered the growth of toxic planktons called red tide," head of the Bali Fisheries and Marine Resources Office Ida Bagus Putu Wisnawa Manuaba said.

The planktons had contaminated sea water adjacent to the areas stretching from Nyanyi to Selabih beaches where the dead fishes were found, he said.

Wisnawa said the sea water`s color turned to red and yellow due to the toxic red tide.

He said his office had warned the people living near the two beaches against eating the dead fishes and swimming in the waters where the dead fishes were found.

Meanwhile, experts from the Southeast Asia Center for Ocean Research and Monitoring (SEACORM) on Thursday conducted a research to look into the cause of the fishes` mass death on the beaches along 35 km of coastline.

They collected dead fishes of various kinds, sea water and planktons for laboratory tests.

The number of dead fishes which have already decayed continues to increase after the phenomenon was for the first time found on Monday.