Mývatn On The Red List Fourth Year In A Row

The fishing organisation ‘Laxár og Krákár’ had an annual meeting at Laxárdal last week to discuss the environmental issues in the Mývatn Lake area. Unfortunately, little has changed over the past few years.

Kjarninn reports that it is now the fourth year in a row that Mývatn is put on the red list of the Environment Agency of Iceland. The chairman of Laxár og Krákár, Bragi Finnbogason, expressed his concerns.

“Marimo, which grows in only one other place on Earth, has completely disappeared,” he said. “The bottom of Mývatn can be compared to a blown-up desert.”

The presence of three-spined stickleback in the lake is also historically low. This was brought to light by research last summer where only 319 sticklebacks were spotted, compared to the 3,000 – 14,000 that have been caught over the last 25 years.

In addition, the amount of cyanobacteria in Mývatn has exceeded acceptable levels established by the World Health Organisation for the past two years now. How and if this degradation will be reversed still remains to be seen.