Tens of thousands of farmed flatfish have died in the ongoing heat wave. As Mike Laidman now reports, farmers remain worried because water temperatures are expected to keep rising.
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Hangyeong-myeon, Jeju City

This closed fish cage in (한경면) Hangyeong-myeon, Jeju City, is full of dead fish, floating on the surface.

Workers scoop them up with barrels and carry them to trucks for disposal. But this clean up doesn’t at all mean the job is over.

As the water temperature soared to 28 degree Celsius, roughly 15,000 fish were all killed within a single day.

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45,000 flatfish die over 3 days

The sudden temperature spike killed more than 45,000 fish over three days.

That's over 10 percent the total number of fish on the farm.

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Higher cage temperatures cause deaths

Cage temperatures tend to be higher than the surrounding waters, and what has farmers worried is that temperatures are expected to continue to rise into what is turning into the equivalent of an ocean heat wave. But there is nothing they can do about it.

INTERVIEW
Kim Gi-yeong / Fish farmer
The water temperature soared from 26 to 28 degrees over the last 3 days, killing huge numbers of the fish.
<인터뷰 : 김기영/피해 양식어가>
"전혀 손 쓸 수 없게 3일 전부터 수온이 갑자기 26도에서 현재 28도까지 올라서 대량폐사가 나오게 됐습니다."

The fish farmers are understandably frustrated, the cage surfaces still littered with hundreds of floating fish.

[Reporter] Mike Laidman
[Camera] Kim Yong-min

With this vicious heat wave not expected to finish anytime soon, concern among local fish farmers is growing.

Mike Laidman, KCTV