18th October 2011
Flooding in Thailand
caused fish kill
Millions of dead fish washed up on the beach of Cha-Am
After months of extreme rain by the too strong summer south-west monsoon, the Thai provinces of Pathum Thani, Nakhon Sawan and Ayutthaya are flooded. Also Bangkok is faced a possible flood. About 300 people have already died directly to the natural disaster.
The flood masses from northern Thailand flow through the rivers toward the Gulf of Thailand. The river basins can not manage the mass of water, so the rivers overflow their banks and flood not only residential and agricultural land, also huge industrial centers are floodes, which are located near the coast. Officially it is not spoken by any chemical accident, but the massive fish kill, which rinses millions of fish at the once so clean and white beaches of Cha-Am can also point to chemicals.
In fact that the mass of rain water decreases the salt level of the water of the Gulf of Thailand and therefore many Underwater Animals can no longer live in the brackish water.
Millions of exotic fish lie dead on the beach of Cha-Am and they slowly rot. The coastal road of Cha-Am is covered with an extreme fishy smell.
Now many poor people make a pilgrimage to the beach to pick up the dead fish on the beach, to cook and pickle the painful died fish. Many of them are simple workers who collect many kilos of fish in order to distribute it to friends, relatives and work colleagues. Fish is expensive and a delicacy in Thailand.
| Our Cha-Am team consists not of scientists and not of physicians, we can not analyze water samples. In fact, that factories were flooded and the flow of the Gulf of Thailand directly flows to Cha-Am, and a massive fish kill has started. Our opinion is, that it can be harmful to eat those fish. By the government or the city of Cha-Am unfortunately no information comes. |
For a larger view click on a picture!
| Colorful dead fish on the beach in Cha-Am, as far as the eye can see | |
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| Dangerous even if they are already dead: sting ray | |
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| The sandy beach of Cha-Am is like a huge cemetery | |
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| Miserably dead fish are washed up by the flood | |
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| Hermit crabs also lost their lives | |
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| Exotic fish are dying painfully in the sun | |
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| Rare crabs and puffer fish die on the beach | |
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| Proudly Noi shows us her tomorrow's lunch: a small shark | |
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| Noi is working on a construction site as contract worker. She now collects kilos of dead fish from the beach for their work colleagues |
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| Children are playing unerringly among dead fish and sting ray on the beach | |
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| The fish kill in Thailand is not mentioned by the media | |
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| At the beach of Cha-Am are millions of dead fish | |
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| Nat (9) helps his grandmother to collect the dead fish | |
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| Also Mali (68) and Nat (9) have been up for hours on the beach and collect dead fish. Mali is too old to work and can supply Nat and herself only by small assistance work since. She also gets no pension. Nat 's parents already died in a traffic accident, so Nat grows up with his grandmother. Both are now very happy because they want to put the fish in salt, so that they can still enjoy it in weeks. | |
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| Proudly Mali shows off her booty. Today she will filletes and cook the fish |
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One effect the flood disaster in Thailand: As far as the eye can see
dead fish lie on the once white and clean beach of Cha-Am.
Between washed up plastic and garbage, once beautiful fish lies at the beach
The flooding is expected to end within the next one to two weeks and therefore also the contamination of the water.
We recommend you for your own safety to avoid in the next two weeks the sea, as well much garbage floating around the water. And in that time as possible avoid it to eat fish.
In a few weeks the situation should have neutralized again and the water quality and the beaches are again so pure and so splendid as they were before.
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