Lake Jatiluhur Fihes Die of Oxygen Shortage: Official

Jatiluhur, W Java - The mass fish deaths in Lake Jatiluhur, Purwakarta district, West Java, over the past several days was due to shortage of oxygen, a fishery official said. "The death of the fishes was due to oxygen shortage following the drop of the water level of the reservoir," Komaran, head of fishery and animal husbandry service of the Purwakarta, said here on Friday. The fish deaths occurred in a number of sections of the lake such as in Blok Cibinong, Kaleosan and Pasirjangkung. "Golden fishes which were ready to be harvested died in the shallow sections of the Lake due to drought," he said. "The fishes are sick in the first place and then they die due to lack of oxygen," Danu, a fish breeder, said. He said his fishes were safe because the location of his fish breeding activity was located in the relatively deep section. Komaran said the mass fish deaths occurred in several parts of the Lake whose depth was not enough for fish, due to depreciation of the water volume of the lake. He said that fishermen were accustomed to tfish deaths and they knew how to prevent then. Reverse currents in Lake Jatiluhur often caused the death of thousands of tons of fish which happened at the peak of the rainy season at the end of the beginning of the year.***5***