Thermaic Gulf: Stefanos Fisherman Sougioultzis broke the shells he was strong in the Greek Aegean Sea just to find an empty shell score.
After summer heat and heating waters, it “as if they were boiled in their own environment,” he said.
“Twenty-five years in the farmhouse, we did not expect, we could not imagine this,” Sougioultzis said on his ship in the Thermaic Bay near Thessaloniki in Northern Greece, the country’s main shell-producing area.
The local authorities said that around 50% of this year’s production was destroyed because Greece faced the worst heat waves in decades.
About 90% of baby shellfish seeds that will grow into production next year also die.
“When people say ‘how beautiful the warm sea we have’, we live through a nightmare,” Sougioultzis said.
He is interesting from the scallop group that grows over the past 18 months, covered in a thick white mass, a scientist identified as a kind of tube worm, marine worms attached to shells at high temperatures and gradually killed them.
“This is the first time I have witnessed such a phenomenon,” said Constantinos Vervitis, the President of the Local Shellfishing Association Poseidon, who represented around 90 family of shellfish farms, about one third of the area producers.
“Every damage we have in the past can be managed.
This year it looks like climate change is here.
The climate crisis is here,” he said.
The temperature of the ‘extreme phenomenon’ rose above 45 degrees Celsius in Greece in July and the sea temperature reached 28 degrees.
In high temperatures, shells suffer from hot stress, said Michaelides Basile, Professor of Animal Physiology at Aristotle Thessaloniki University, whose expertise includes the impact of global warming on marine life.
“If this situation continues and continues to deteriorate, then we will see extreme phenomena in the future,” he said.
“We must always be vigilant.” Together with Italy, France and Spain, Greece is one of the main producers of Mediterranean shells in the world, which is known for its high meat content, and exported most of its production.
Greece produced around 23,000 tons of agricultural shells in 2020, official data showed, but suffered from the coronavirus pandemic injuring tourism and demand from its main market Italy and Spain, said Kostas Giutika, a regional deputy governor responsible for growth and the environment.
“The bay is in danger of not having shellfish farmers in the coming years – a region that plants 85% of national production.
Everything is very difficult,” he said.
Restaurants throughout Greece felt pinch.
Some Tavernas took shellfish from the menu in August due to a short supply.
“We will hear about climate change on TV,” said Eleftherios Stouraitis, restaurant owner in Athens.
“Nobody believes, no one wants, that it will knock on our door.” Returning to the Gulf, Vervitis, President Poseidon, said the government needs to immediately compensate for fishermen because of their losses because there are few things they can do.
“We were forced to live here and fight,” he said.
“All our lives are here.”
Extreme heat replenish the Greek shell harvest
