Fish suffocated by the hundreds this week at a fishery near Wuhan, China, after an outbreak of blue-green algae used up too much of the oxygen in the water (China map).

Authorities believe the algae bloom was sparked by dirty rainwater released by a pumping station upriver.

On May 22 a similar pollution-driven algae outbreak in Lake Tai in China's Jiangsu Province forced local authorities to shut off drinking water routed to the lakeside city of Wuxi.

"It came out bluish-green and smelled awful," Shi Qing, a tourist boat operator at Wuxi's lakeside Turtlehead Peninsula, told the Washington Post. "The lake was covered in algae and we had to send boats out to clear it."

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