In the Mali Ston Bay, an unprecedented mussel die-off is occurring, and according to initial estimates, in the Brijesta Bay, known for the largest shellfish production in the area, the damage amounts to nearly 80 percent, reported HRT.

Mussel farmers attribute the massive die-off to high sea temperatures. The Lazić brothers, who have been family farming mussels on a ten-hectare area, have lost almost ninety percent of their mussels, according to HRT.

Shellfish farmer Zdravko Lazić, who farms mussels in Brijesta Bay, does not remember such a die-off.

"We have been running the business for 25 years, doing this all our lives, as did generations before us. I have never even heard of such a thing," emphasized Lazić.

Farmers suspect that the cause of the shellfish die-off is the exceptionally high sea temperature, unprecedented in this area, nearly 30 degrees Celsius.