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WARSAW, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Oder River, plagued by a mass fish die-off since late July, could have been contaminated by rare microorganisms known as golden algae, a Polish government minister said on Thursday.
The cause of death is uncertain, though officials believe the fish are likely to have been poisoned.
Raising fears of an environmental disaster, Polish firefighters have recovered 100 tonnes of dead fish from the Oder river since Friday. The reason behind the troubling incident is still unknown. “We’d never had an operation of this scope on a river before,” said Monika Nowakowska-Drynda from the national firefighter press office. Dams, boats, quad bikes and even a drone are involved in the massive operation to recover dead fish from the river that runs through Germany and Poland.
"Everything points to a manmade catastrophe," one environmental expert tells CBS News, as 100 tons of dead fish are removed from the Oder River.
Polish prosecutors question more than 200 about mass fish deaths