TIRANA, Aug. 12 – The extremely high temperatures during this summer have severely damaged the mussel population in Butrint Lake, southern Albania, where 90 percent of the mussel seed is reported to have died.
Agriculture ministry officials are assisting with water cooling with the opening of the Bistrica watershed so that the temperature is brought to below 28 degrees Celsius at which mussel seed can safely grow.
“Lack of high and low tides because of not normal water circulation has caused massive deaths of mussels. The maximum temperature for the mussel population to survive is at 28 degrees and this has destroyed the 90 to 95 of the mussel production for 2016,” says Ardian Xinxo, the head of the Food and Veterinary Safety Institute.
Water temperatures in the Butrint lake, a Ramsar site and national park, is reported to have reached as high as 38 degrees this month.
Data published by state statistical institute, INSTAT, shows the mussel catch doubled in 2014 when it reached 1,500 tonnes, up from an average of 755 tonnes in 2012 and 2013.
Fishing and mussel cultivation is an important economic activity for the local population at the Butrint Lake.
Mussels at the Butrint Lake have been exploited since 1968 but their proper cultivation started in 1970 with production arriving to 1000–6000 kg/year and after technological improvements the product increased to a maximum of 50,000 kg in 1990.
However, the reduction of fresh water entrances and the introduction of increased mussel production resulted in a lack of diluted oxygen and an increase in the decayed organic matter and bacteria activity, says Ramsar.org, the official site of the secretariat for the Convention on Wetlands.
