"Colombia Drought Suffocates Tons of Fish"

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - An estimated 3 million fish have suffocated in a reservoir in southern Colombia, where a four-month drought has drastically drained water levels, leaving too little oxygen to sustain dozens of hatcheries.

Since Sunday, more than 1,320 tons of tilapia raised inside giant metal cages have gone belly-up and floated to the surface behind the Betania hydroelectric dam, where scorchingly high temperatures have lowered water levels by 82 feet in recent months.

The local fish industry, which exports the tilapia as fillets to the United States and Europe, could lose more than $2 million, said Eliseo Motta, government secretary in Huila state, where the dam is located.

"Every day the reservoir levels just get lower," Motta told The Associated Press by telephone from Betania, where he was supervising work crews burying and incinerating the dead fish.

Colombia's government has temporarily banned the sale of fish produced in Betania's hatcheries to protect consumers from possibly contaminated fillets. Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias also promised $700,000 in federal subsidies and tax credits to help the hatcheries recover.

Colombia also has asked the Spanish power company Endesa SA (ELE) to gradually restore the reservoir's water levels by scaling back production of electricity at the dam.


Meanwhile - Off of the Northeast coast of North America - there has been a collapse of the cod fishing industry:

A rush of cold fresh water from the Arctic contributed to the collapse of the northwest Atlantic cod industry and is fueling a boom of snow crab and shrimp in the waters off New England and eastern Canada, a new study says.

A reversal of wind direction with a record drop in Arctic air pressure pumped the water through the Canadian archipelago in the late 1980s and 1990s, according to a study in today's issue of the journal Science. The cold water helped spoil the cod habitat while improving conditions for snow crab and shrimp....

The cool water comes from a large body called the Beaufort Gyre, which borders the Arctic ice shelf. Clockwise-turning winds build up water from rain and melting ice. About every 10 years, the wind direction reverses, dumping the Beaufort Gyre into the surrounding ocean. Increased rain and melt-off contributed to the record spill.