Mass fish deaths haunt river on Polish-German border

Fisherman Henry Schneider had to stop working for several months after a toxic algae bloom hit the Oder river last August, decimating his catch. Schneider, whose family has made its living from the river running along the Polish-German border for over a century, finally took up his activities again in May, but the risk is still very present: "If it happens again this year then there will be nothing to fish in this river for the next few years," he warns. The sudden catastrophe wiped out more than half of the fish in the river, but Prymnesium parvum, the organism responsible for poisoning the fish, has not disappeared and the risk of a repeat is high, according to experts.