High temperatures suffocate Albanian mussels as global warming takes toll

BUTRINT, Albania - Violet Mihasi doesn't hide her concern while working on her barge in a salt lagoon in the southern tip of Albania, her mussels clinging to ropes dangled in the water.

The mussel farmer fears another poor harvest this year of the particularly fleshy mussel, dubbed the "Queen of Butrint", which is suffocating as temperatures rise.

The warmer waters of the Butrint Lagoon on the Ionian coast, not far from the Greek border, also encourage parasites that starve the once thriving bivalves of oxygen.