Endangered fish’s population bottom in flood-hit northern province

İdris Emen - SİNOP

A great decrease has occurred in the red-spotted trout population, which is a species endemic to Anatolia and is in danger of extinction, due to the massive flood disaster in the Black Sea provinces last summer.

An investigation in the flood-hit areas revealed that there was a great decrease in the red-spotted trout population, whose gills were clogged, fragmented or overflowed from the river beds due to flood waters.

The species even disappeared in many points of Sinop’s Tekedereresi, Wallsökü and Kepez creeks, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said.

The breeding points in the creeks were not adversely affected by the flood, the ministry noted. Therefore, an improvement in the population is being foreseen as the ministry plans to release red-spotted trout into these streams.

A year after the flood, an investigation was initiated by the Nature Conservation and National Parks (DKMP) on the red-spotted trout population in the creeks in the Sinop province’s Ayancık district.

Floods following torrential rain claimed 82 lives in the region, mostly in Kastamonu’s Bozkurt, one of the hardest-hit settlements along with Ayancık, during which waters reached a height of 4 meters.

The heavy rains left 71 people dead in the province of Kastamonu, said a statement by the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency.

Ten others died in the Sinop province, along with one person in the Bartın province.

More than 100 people lost their lives due to floods and landslides in the region just last year.