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BALTIC SEA

Fishing industry quiet on worms in cod: report

A growing seal population in the Baltic sea has brought with it an unwanted consequence - the cod worm (anisakis), which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and intense stomach aches if ingested, is steadily becoming more common in the Baltic area.

Fishing industry quiet on worms in cod: report

But the Swedish fishing industry has kept a tight lid on information about the growing numbers, according to a report in newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN).

“The worry is that it’ll have very negative consequences, and that people will stop eating fish. So we want more information on the subject and so far this has not been a financial priority,” Sven-Gunnar Lunneryd, an expert on seals, told the newspaper.

Though the symptoms usually disappear within two weeks, severe cases can see the cod worm eating its way through the stomach and showing up in other places in the body.

According to the DN report, one unlucky man in the United States suffered from a truly stubborn cod worm after eating sushi.

The parasite crawled up his esophagus, and from there proceeded to eat its way through into the man’s neck.

Another incident reported by the paper was one sufferer who coughed up live worms after experiencing a ticklish and achy throat.

But when a similar revelation was made in Germany in the 1980’s it caused a significant drop in fish consumption and authorities are fearing the same will happen in Sweden, Lunneryd told the paper.

“There aren’t any reports about this being common in the Baltic, so I got interested and looked through 2,000 fishes collected in the area. From these we can see that the parasite is quite common.”

Southern areas of Sweden, including the southern coast of Skåne and the waters outside Blekinge and Öland, seem to be hit especially hard.

According to Lunneryd, this is well known among his co-workers at the Swedish Board of Fisheries (Fiskeriverket, now Havs- och vattenmyndigheten).

But even so, he says no official investigations have been made, nor have any reports been written. In fact, Lunneryd’s study was made in his own free time.

One person who’s seen the cod worm up close is Harry Löfgren, who was just about to eat his newly-caught cod on Friday when he received a nasty surprise.

“I noticed something moving in my sauce,” the 9-year-old told DN.

Despite his father cooking the fresh caught cod, the worms, which were “yellow and about a centimeter long”, were very much alive, according to the newspaper.

“Next time we will freeze the fillets before we cook them,” the boy told the paper.

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DENMARK

Germany gives green light to world’s longest rail and road tunnel to Denmark

A top German court on Tuesday approved the construction of the world's longest combined rail and road tunnel that is expected to slash journey times from northern Germany to Denmark.

Germany gives green light to world's longest rail and road tunnel to Denmark
A visualisation of the planned Fehmarn Belt tunnel between Germany and Denmark with the tunnel entrance on the Danish side at Rodbyhavn. Photo: DPA

The 18-kilometre submerged Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link is due to open in 2029 but has been beset by legal battles from conservationists and ferry companies.

German regulatory approval is “a historic milestone”, said the project's chief executive Claus Baunkjaer.

The tunnel will be one of Europe's largest infrastructure projects, crossing the Baltic Sea between the ports of Puttgarden in Germany and Rodby on the Danish island of Lolland, reducing road journey times to 10 minutes from an hour-long ferry ride.

It is expected to cost 52.6 Danish kroner (€7.1 billion), with the four-lane, twin railway tunnel section built and paid for by Denmark alongside EU funding, linking Hamburg and Copenhagen in two and a half hours by train.

The idea of a permanent connection across the Fehmarn Belt was mooted almost 30 years ago, originally as a bridge, just as the eight-kilometre Oresund link between Copenhagen and Malmo in Sweden was readying construction.

While Denmark has already begun building work on the project, work on the German side was halted by legal obstacles.

Environmentalists raised concerns over the environmental impact, especially on reefs and porpoises.

Unlike other underwater tunnels, such as the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel, the Germany-Denmark tunnel will not lie under the seabed.

Instead the tunnel is to use hollow concrete sections that are to be submerged and placed in a trench dug into the Baltic Sea floor.

Ferry firms facing vastly reduced trade also took a dim view of the competition from road and high-speed rail.

However, the federal administrative court in Leipzig rejected their arguments.

The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice is still mulling other complaints related to the project.

READ ALSO: Germany and Denmark to link with massive bridge across strait

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