Hundreds of fish wriggle and flip as they try to escape after the river was turned into a shallow mud bog during a drought.
Video footage recorded at Corumba, in Brazil’s state of Mato Grosso do Sul, shows huge numbers of fish already dead from suffocation as water levels drop.
Others struggled desperately to free themselves from the thick mud of the river bed as they took their last gasps of life.
Local media reports that a powerful heatwave and forest fires have dried up rivers in the region, killing tens of thousands of fish and other wildlife.
In previous years, the water basin near the Paraguay River frequently flooded, which is part of its inhabitants’ life cycle.
But this year, the area has dried up and turned into an immense mudflat, devastating wildlife.
The video was recorded by Edilaine Arruda, a researcher from the ecology NGO Ecoa, on 20th June.
Ecoa director and biologist Andre Siqueira at Ecoa said the drying up of lakes and water bodies in the region is part of the area’s life cycle.
But droughts have triggered the phenomenon two months earlier than it should have happened, he said.
Siqueira explained: “What is not normal is for it to happen so early.
“The early drying of these bays is noteworthy.”
As well as the devastation of wildlife, the drought has also destroyed local economies that depend on rivers and lakes for their income.
He said: “In that region, hundreds of families of professional and artisanal fishermen, as well as riverside families who depend on fishing and bait collection for their subsistence, are concentrated.
“They need these lakes and bays for their work.”
New scientific data has revealed that the Pantanal, the world’s largest flooded plain, is becoming increasingly dry, leaving the region ripe for wildfires.
Mato Grosso do Sul’s state government declared a state of emergency in the region on 24th June.
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Story By: Simona Kitanovska, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: Newsflash
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