19 August 2022, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Ueckermünde: Till Backhaus (SPD), State Environment Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, shows a chemically fixed water sample from the Szczecin Lagoon. Employees of the State Office for Agriculture and the Environment of Western Pomerania (StALU VP) have taken further water samples. So far, according to official information, no fish carcasses have been discovered in the German part of the lagoon in connection with the Oder fish kill. Nevertheless, as a precautionary measure, authorities advise against swimming, fishing, and water withdrawal from the Szczecin Lagoon. Tourism businesses have already reported a drop in visitors. The German-Polish border river Oder flows into the Szczecin Lagoon, through which the German-Polish border runs and which is connected to the Baltic Sea. The estuary is widely branched and the Haff, at around 900 square kilometers, is about twice the size of Lake Constance. Photo: Stefan Sauer/dpa