MUSCAT: Residents near Marina Bandar Al Rawdha woke up on Friday morning to an astonishing sight: a large stretch of the shore was littered with thousands of dead fish. The Muscat Municipality began cleanup and rescue operations as soon as they were notified of the situation. 
 
According to a statement issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, lack of oxygen in the water is believed to be the cause of the incident. “The main cause of death of the fish was that a large number of fish entered the semi-closed area, that led to the depletion of oxygen in the region and lead to the death,” said Dr. 
Abdullah Al Nahdi, the Head of Marine and Fisheries Science Center at the Ministry.

The quantity of dead drone fish ranged from six to eight tonnes. “Upon laboratory analysis of the samples, it was found that there was no red tide or phytoplankton bloom phenomena,” he pointed out. 

According to Al Nahdi, a similar incident happened in port of Sidab years ago. “This is a natural case and nothing to worry about and it is rare repetition of a case from the port of Sidab, which witnessed a similar incident years ago.”