FISHERMEN used shovels, wheel-carts and trucks in western Mexico to pull tons of dead fish out of a lagoon that has been the scene of four fish kills this year.

    Authorities are investigating whether negligence at wastewater treatment plants was to blame after millions of fresh water fish locally known as “popocha” began to float up in the Cajititlan lagoon last week.

    Some 130 fishermen from the town of Tlajomulco continued to pull dead fish out of the water Monday and buried them in pits, removing some 53 tons so far.

    “We don’t want this problem to worsen because we would end up in the street,” said Rigoberto Diaz, a local fisherman who fears that other species such as tilapia, which unlike popocha is edible, will die too.

    Jalisco state environment secretary Magdalena Ruiz said it was the fourth unexplained fish kill at the same lagoon this year. Authorities are conducting tests on the dead fish while state environmental prosecutors are investigating local wastewater treatment plants.

    The Tlajomulco municipality, however, said the deaths were due to a cyclical change in water temperature that caused oxygen to drop.

    (SD-Agencies)