ABSTRACT
This study demonstrates the crisis management, and its consequences, of an unusual fish kill which happened over a period of four weeks in a semi-enclosed and natural, protected embayment, the Maliakos Gulf, located in the northeast Aegean Sea in central continental Greece. Identification of the cause was not immediate because a diagnosis pertaining to fish health in relation to environmental stressors can take one to two months before a clear causal etiology of mass mortalities can be given. The seawater column was well oxygenated but heavy nutrient loadings via the Spercheios River induced an imbalance of N/P ratios, which may have promoted the development of an ichthyotoxic algal bloom of Chatonella sp. Fish kill losses directly affected the income of fishermen and fish farming operations. Dead fish appearing at different points along the coastline at different times had a tremendous effect on local residents, consumers of local seafood products and tourism long after the mass mortality event. The lack of a cultural model has shifted the risk from fish kills to the market. The limited social trust in public administrators and the adverse media interpretation during communication of the event exacerbated the effects of the crisis on the local behavior of the coastal society.
