Culinary catastrophe
Extreme heat in Italy threatens shellfish needed for prized pasta dishes
Raising concerns
The heat wave has also sharply reduced the flow of the Po River, allowing salty seawater to advance as far as 18 kilometers inland and raising concerns for agriculture and protected wetlands in the delta, according to Reuters.
At the last point before the Po branches into several channels feeding into the Adriatic Sea, the river's flow has dropped from about 1,000 cubic meters per second to below 300.
The impact has also been severe in the Sacca di Scardovari, a lagoon renowned for premium Mediterranean mussels Cozza di Scardovari PDO. Water temperatures there have reached over 30 C, reducing dissolved oxygen, accelerating algal growth and causing widespread mussel mortality in areas with limited water exchange.
Cooperatives of the lagoon have reported the sudden loss of around 100 metric tons of PDO mussels, attributing the die-off to extreme heat, oxygen depletion and restricted water exchange after years of disruption caused by the invasive Atlantic blue crab.
The situation has been worsened by algal proliferation and anti-blue crab barriers that restrict water renewal within the lagoon.
According to estimates by Confcooperative Agroalimentare e Pesca, global warming is causing direct damage of around 200 million euros ($230 million) a year to Italy's professional fishing industry, with shellfish farming bearing the greatest impact.
CHINA DAILY
