Mussel producers in the Ebro Delta estimate that the heat has killed between 80 and 90% of the brood

ACN/Deltebre - Mussel producers in the Ebro Delta estimate that between 80 and 90% of the mussel brood in the Fangar Bay has died as a result of the high temperatures of the sea water during this month of August. Once the campaign was over, the mussel farmers had transferred more than a million kilos of seed to this area to guarantee the sowing of the next harvest in suitable conditions. But the warming of the sea water, which according to Gerardo Bonet, manager of the Federation of Mollusc Producers of the Ebro Delta (Fepromodel), reached 31 degrees for several days during the last heat wave, has ended up killing them. This will force them, once again, to have to buy brood in Italy or Greece.

Affected oyster farmers entered the area where the fry were sown in Fangar Bay on Thursday to check their condition. According to Bonet, in some cases the mortality is total, although in areas near the mouth of the bay the survival could be higher. "Now we will have to clean the dead fry, remove them, remove the protections, lose what has been done so far and start again: re-sow everything for the 2026 harvest," he said.

This year, the collectors had captured a higher quantity of fry during the campaign than in previous years. But the mortality this August will force the oyster farmers to have to go back to looking for and buying seed from other Mediterranean producing countries: Italy, mainly, but also Greece. Bonet explains that they are keeping their attention fixed on the conditions in these areas in order to guarantee next year's harvest. If the fry from there survive, Delta producers could acquire between 1 and 1.5 million kilos from the end of September.

This is not the first time they have been forced to purchase them abroad due to episodes of mortality in the waters of the delta bays. Last year, they also saw the purchase price in other countries skyrocket to almost 2 euros per kilo, an unprecedented figure, almost triple what it was a few years ago. "We hope that this time it will not reach these prices," Bonet confides.