Seventy tons of fish carcasses floated to the surface of the Linggai lake in West Sumatra on Thursday (February 6).

The Head of the local district Fisheries and Food Security Office, Ermanto said, there were around seventy tons of fish that died.

He alleged that climate change was a contributing factor to the mass death of the fish.

Due to local climate changing, poison forming at the bottom of the lake has subsequently risen closer to the surface where the fish feed.

"The current weather or waves at the bottom of the lake, causing fish food to pile up at the bottom of the lake to rise to the surface.

"The rest of the feed is poisonous, which causes many fish to die when they eat it again," explained Ermanto.

Ermanto appealed to the community to immediately harvest fish that are still alive and place them in lake cages so they do not die.