Shafaq News<\/p>\n
A rare eyeless fish still<\/a> survives The evidence points to no single The losses come amid a steep The Green Iraq Observatory estimated Maysan: Scarcity Suspected, Lab Maysan offers the most consistent Fish began dying in the Al-Amshan The stronger evidence is historical. The World Bank warned in 2022 that Wasit: Pollution Is Credible But If Maysan points to scarcity, the The Green Iraq Observatory But no public laboratory data Pollution remains a real threat The South: Salt Changes The Habitat<\/p>\n The same loss of freshwater that A 2025 study by researchers from the Read more: Hawizeh Marsh faces catastrophic fish die-off<\/a><\/p>\n Illegal Fishing Keeps Removing Stock<\/p>\n Destructive fishing also continues Iraq’s Law No. 48 of 1976 bans The World Bank likewise flagged Read more: Death in the current: Pollution decimates Iraq\u2019s river ecosystems<\/a><\/p>\n Millions Released, Survival Against these combined pressures, What happens next is unknown. No
\nin Al-Anbar’s stable groundwater while mass die-offs spread across Iraq’s
\nrivers, marshes, and farms. The contrast frames the country’s central failure:
\nnot that its fish are dying, but that Iraq often cannot say why.<\/p>\n
\ncause. Water scarcity and oxygen depletion are documented in some areas;
\npollution is suspected but unconfirmed in others; salinity, disease, and
\ndestructive fishing add further pressure. In most cases, the testing needed to
\nisolate one factor from another was never done, and the diagnostic gap, more
\nthan any single toxin or drought, is what leaves each die-off unresolved.<\/p>\n
\ncontraction in the industry. Iraqi Fish Producers Association head Iyad
\nal-Talibi told Shafaq News that annual production has fallen from more than
\n900,000 metric tons in 2018 to an estimated 250,000\u2013300,000 today. That collapse
\n\u2014roughly two-thirds of national output in under a decade\u2014 turns the issue from
\nan environmental concern into a broader food-security problem.<\/p>\n
\non August<\/a> 8 that more than 1,000 metric tons of fish had been lost nationwide
\nduring 2026.<\/p>\n
\nEvidence Lacking<\/p>\n
\ncase for linking deaths to falling water levels, though the evidence rests
\nlargely on official attribution rather than measurement.<\/p>\n
\nCanal in early August after water releases dropped sharply, according to the
\nprovincial council’s Agriculture and Water Committee. Environmental activist
\nMortada al-Janubi<\/a> attributed deaths in the Al-Ezz River and central marshes<\/a> to
\nreceding water and falling oxygen. Maysan lawmaker Duha al-Sadkhan told Shafaq
\nNews that hundreds of tons were lost in Al-Mejar Al-Kabir district, with damage
\nestimated at three billion to five billion Iraqi dinars ($2.28M \u2013 $3.80M).<\/p>\n
\nIn August 2024, testing after extensive mortality in Al-Huwaizeh Marsh, on the
\nIraq-Iran border, identified critically low water levels and oxygen depletion
\nas the principal factors; environmental expert Ahmed Saleh put mortality there
\nnear 95 percent. That episode was measured. The 2026 Al-Amshan deaths have been
\nattributed to the same mechanism, but Shafaq News found no publicly available
\ntesting confirming it. The distinction matters: a plausible explanation is not
\nnecessarily a proven cause.<\/p>\n
\ndams, water abstraction, and wetland drainage were cutting river flows and
\nthreatening inland fisheries. For fish held at high density in cages or ponds,
\nreduced flow compounds the danger: poor circulation drives oxygen stress and
\ndisease.<\/p>\n
\nUnproven<\/p>\n
\nApril die-off in Wasit remains genuinely unsettled, with attention fixed on
\nwhether contaminated water moving from the Diyala into the Tigris caused the
\nlosses.<\/p>\n
\nattributed the episode to untreated sewage and industrial waste carried
\ndownstream after releases from Hamrin Dam rose, and it documented more than 20
\ncases of poisoning and skin injury requiring hospital treatment. Al-Talibi blamed
\nsewage entering the Tigris through the Diyala and estimated that about 95
\npercent of Kut’s floating cages were affected.<\/p>\n
\nreviewed by Shafaq News reported the measurements that would separate pollution
\nfrom oxygen depletion, infection, or several causes acting together: dissolved
\noxygen, ammonia, heavy metals. Iraq’s 2018 mass mortality shows why that gap
\nmatters: an international investigation concluded that Koi Herpesvirus was the
\nprincipal cause, with poor water quality and overcrowding raising
\nsusceptibility rather than triggering the deaths. The obvious culprit was not
\nthe killer.<\/p>\n
\nregardless. A World Bank document in May 2026 estimated that more than 70
\npercent of sewage in Iraq’s urban areas enters rivers untreated. Water
\nResources Minister Muthanna al-Tamimi announced legal action in July against parties
\naccused of polluting the Tigris and Diyala, citing joint inspections with the
\nEnvironment Ministry. Months later, no public information identifies the
\ndefendants or indicates whether the cases have advanced.<\/p>\n
\nstarves fish of oxygen creates a second pressure farther south, where weaker
\nriver flows let saltwater push deeper into the Shatt Al-Arab and connected
\nwetlands.<\/p>\n
\nuniversities of Basrah and Babylon recorded a salinity of 29.9 practical
\nsalinity units in Al-Hammar Marsh, where every fish sampled at one station
\nduring the intrusion was a marine species. At Abu Al-Khaseeb, at 25 units,
\nmarine species made up 82.8 percent of recorded abundance. The findings do not
\nname salinity as a cause of the recent die-offs, but they show how sharply
\ndeclining flows can rewrite which fish a habitat can hold.<\/p>\n
\nto strip breeding populations already weakened by water loss.<\/p>\n
\npoisons, explosives, chemicals, and electrical devices, with penalties up to
\nimprisonment and confiscation of boats and catches. Yet the Supreme Judicial
\nCouncil found electrofishing, explosives, pesticides, and illegal nets still in
\nuse in 2024 and urged consolidating provisions scattered across separate laws,
\na legislative fix that has not come. <\/p>\n
\nelectrofishing and breeding-season fishing as persistent, poorly enforced
\nthreats. Agriculture Ministry spokesperson Qusay al-Hattab told Shafaq News
\nthat teams document violations with GPS equipment, but no public nationwide
\nfigures show how many were recorded in 2025 or 2026, or how many led to
\nconvictions.<\/p>\n
\nUntracked<\/p>\n
\nthe government’s most visible response is restocking. The Agriculture Ministry
\nreleased<\/a> about 155 million fish in the 2026 season, al-Hattab said \u2014up from
\nroughly 95 million the year before\u2014 including more than 11 million into Anah
\nLake in Al-Anbar in April alone. The Animal Resources Directorate produced more
\nthan 1.5 million native fish between 2023 and 2025, among them Binni, Qattan,
\nand Shabout.<\/p>\n
\npublished data reviewed by Shafaq News show how many released fish survive to
\nmaturity or form breeding populations. The releases are countable and
\nimmediate; the water they enter is often the same unmeasured water where fish
\nhave been dying. Restocking may replace some of the losses without addressing
\nthe conditions behind them, while no publicly available data show whether the
\nprogram is producing sustainable fish populations.<\/p>\n