Mass death of shrimp recorded in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen

A huge number of dead shrimps were washed up on the coast of Yemen in the Hadramaut region. Photos of the dead mollusks that flooded the coastal strip of the Gulf of Aden in the Ash Shihr area have distributed social networks in recent days.

According to a number of eco-activists, the mass death of crustaceans may be related to the incident in the Red Sea, where in early March, after an attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels from the Ansar Allah movement, the British cargo ship Rubymar sank. As it turned out later, there were more than 20 thousand tons of fertilizers with ammonium sulfate and phosphate on board.

Meanwhile, according to marine biologists, the death of shrimp may have a natural cause associated with a sharp change in water temperature or a lack of oxygen dissolved in water. However, this does not exclude the possibility of a large amount of chemical fertilizers entering the sea.

By order of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, a group of experts on marine biodiversity went to Hadhramaut. According to Hana Rashid, head of the General Directorate of Marine and Aquatic Research at the Ministry of Water Resources of Yemen, dead shrimps measuring 4-5 cm filled the coastal zone on an area of about one and a half kilometers. Experts have not yet identified anything suspicious from an environmental point of view, in particular, they have not established obvious facts of marine pollution.

"Only one species died, namely shrimp," she said.

"This phenomenon is considered quite natural and is recorded annually at times of climatic changes affecting the development and reproduction of marine life." Nevertheless, research is still ongoing, samples of the material have been taken to establish the exact causes of death of mollusks.

In January last year, a mass death of shrimp was also recorded off the east coast of Yemen.