Controversy over hundreds of dead fish in popular 'turtle' lake on Costa del Sol

The town hall's environment department does not yet know the reason for the deaths, but environmentalists say that the transfer of the fish from Las Medranas reservoir, which is being remodelled, was not handled correctly

María Albarral

Marbella

Monday, 10 March 2025, 16:38

The death of hundreds of fish over the last few days in the Lago de las Tortugas ('turtle lake') in Marbella has fuelled controversy in the town over the way in which the remodelling of the Las Medranas reservoir is being carried out. The town hall's environment department does not yet know the causes of the mortality but environmentalists and opposition political parties have accused the town hall of not transferring the fish correctly from one place to the other.

Local residents and environmentalists have turned to social media to voice their anger over the deaths: "These deaths are appearing after the rudimentary transfers made by the town tall," said Javier de Luis from Ecologistas Malaka. He said that "everything suggests that they have died from anoxia, a lack of oxygen that causes a slow death, which leads us to think that the fish have been moved from one place to another without any prior sanitary or environmental control".

The environmentalists say that "the Junta de Andalucía has failed to comply with the law as it has not ensured that the transfer is carried out under conditions that do not put local ecosystems at risk". The group has filed a complaint with the Malaga environmental prosecutor's office.

The local PSOE and Opción Sampedreña (OSP) political parties which are in opposition at the town hall have asked for explanations from the governing Partido Popular (PP). The spokesperson for the PSOE in Marbella, Isabel Pérez, has described what has happened as an "unprecedented ecological disaster". She went on to say, "Both the Junta and the town hall have carried out a chaotic management from an environmental point of view when undertaking the work in the Las Medranas reservoir, with absolute disregard for the flora and, above all, the fauna of this important wetland."

Pérez also argued that "the government team could have generated hypoxia in Lago de las Tortugas due to the lack of oxygen" and said that "the release of specimens in another ecosystem should have been evaluated by competent technicians in the field".

The OSP said "The Lago de las Tortugas has become the scene of an environmental tragedy where dozens of fish have been found dead after an improvised and unsafe transfer from the Medranas reservoir."

Top 50

Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.

Reporta un error en esta noticia