Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, located in Rio de Janeiro, is the lagoon where the world's best athletes will compete for the rowing and canoeing Olympic gold medals next summer. However, Brazilian workers have had to remove over 33 tonnes of dead fish from the lagoon, all of which, it is suspected, died from oxygen starvation as a result of pollution.
The environmental secretariat has said that the fish deaths were as a result of a sudden change in water temperature. However, this has been rejected by scientists. Paul Rosman, who is an oceanographer working at the lagoon, said algae blooms had built up higher levels of carbon dioxide in the water. Mr Rosman said, "There was a big effort to stop sewage and we removed everything possible. But reducing the sewage doesn't mean you have reduced the algae blooms. That happens because of the excess of nutrients in the water."
Water quality is also a huge concern at Guanabara Bay, which is where the sailing events will be held. In January, the Government stated that they would miss their target of an 80% reduction in water pollution in the Bay.
