Experts say that these are all due to winter conditions and oxygen deprivation. Other folks who live near the fish kills will say they have never seen it like this before. We had some severe winter weather this year. Not a sign of the end of the world, but in my mind, definitely a sign of climate change. And then there are the ones from pollution and oil spills….
Small fish kill in Bangladore
Oxygen deprivation again…
About 150 fish were found dead at a pond in JP Park of Mathikere on Tuesday night. Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials said that the fish were choked to death owing to excessive evaporation of water in the stagnant water body.
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Another small kill in a pond in Missoula
Visitors to the duck pond on the south side of town will find a pretty gross scene: more dead fish than actual ducks.
Roughly 50 dead fish are visibly floating on the surface of the small pond. Neighbors first noticed the issue and reported it to Missoula Parks and Rec yesterday. This morning, Parks and Rec recovered one of the fish and sent it to Fish, Wildlife and Parks for testing.
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Small Fish Kill in Minnesota
ALEXANDRIA, Minn. (KSAX) - Around 300 dead fish were found in Lake Agnes and Lake Henry earlier this month in open water areas after ice had melted. But both residents and experts said they’re not sure why.
“All winter long, I’ve been fishing the lake (Henry), and I ran into a situation where we had a four to six foot column of fish, and all of the sudden, they disappeared. I could not find a fish on the lake,” Lake Henry resident and fisherman Rick Colden said.
Colden isn’t the only one who’s had a hard time on the lakes, as more than 2,000 anglers failed to catch a fish at a tournament on the adjoining Lake Agnes on Feb. 12.
But the recent evidence of fish kill may be to blame.
“A lot of game fishes; walleye, bass, bluegill, some crappie, (were found dead). So certainly a concern,” Minnesota Department of Natural Resources area fisheries supervisor Dean Beck said.
Beck said it’s hard to pinpoint a timeframe or reason for the fish kill because both fish and water samples can no longer provide accurate readings.
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Small fish kill in Connecticut
Wallingford, Conn (WTNH) - It’s happening in a lot of fresh water around Connecticut right now. Dozens of dead fish are turning up, floating on the surface. The DEP says it’s a common occurrence after the kind of winter we had.
North Farms Reservoir in Wallingford is very large, but it is also very shallow. It’s just six feet deep at most, and that may be a factor in what’s happening.
It is a peaceful spot off Route 68 in Wallingford. Lots of swans and ducks paddle around with no particular concerns, but it didn’t take long for our cameras to find dead fish including big bass and tiny sunfish.
It was worse just a few days ago. Photos were sent to us by Nick Santillo, who found dozens of dead fish piled up in the reservoir.
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Smaller kill in west Texas
With nets in hand, city staff were continuing Monday to remove dead fish from Wadley Barron Park after a pond ‘turnover’ that created a lack of oxygen for the organisms living inside.
Parks & Recreation Manager Scott Swigert said they were alerted Thursday fish were dying and have been working on the issue each day since, having seen a decrease in the rate at which fish were dying by Monday.
“We are currently experiencing what’s known as a pond turnover,” Swigert said, explaining why hundreds of fish have died. “It’s a naturally occurring event … It’s happened in the past and we’re confident it will occur again in the future.”
When sediments build up at the bottom of a pond, the water eventually will flip, causing the oxygen on the top of the water to mix with the carbon dioxide and other chemicals at the bottom, creating a lack of air.
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1000’s of dead fish and a few turtles and gulls on Misery Bay on March 22nd
Cathy Pedlar and Kathryn Hamilton were walking by Presque Isle State Park’s Misery Bay on Tuesday afternoon when they spotted thousands of dead fish along the north shore.
Pedlar said she’s seen dead fish before, but never like this.
“I haven’t seen this density before,” she said.
Park and state officials were notified and a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection official investigated.
“This is a natural fish kill, no cause for alarm,” Jim Grazio, a Great Lakes biologist with DEP’s Office of the Great Lakes, said after inspecting the dead fish.
He said 99 percent were gizzard shad and he believed their death was a natural event caused by temperature change.
Grazio said the gizzard shad, a freshwater herring, is notoriously sensitive to cold temperatures and temperature changes.
He also said more than the usual number of the fish were born in 2010 for unknown reasons.
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Thousands of Dead fish in Michigan blamed on cold
Michigan officials say thousands of dead fish found in the Lake St. Clair area likely died because of the cold weather.
The state Department of Natural Resources and Environment says Friday that large numbers of gizzard shad probably died because of the lengthy, cold winter. State officials say they’ve collected samples and had them analyzed, and they don’t suspect a fish virus or bacterial disease is to blame.
Thousands of dead gizzard shad were found earlier this year in Lakes Erie and St. Clair, the St. Clair River and the Detroit River. Shad deaths are typical in the winter.
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Winter fish kills on numerous lakes in Iowa
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has received numerous reports of dead fish in lakes and ponds across Iowa as the ice cover disappears for another year.
These winter fish kills have been reported at Swan Lake (Carroll), Badger Creek Lake (Madison), Clark Lake (Cerro Gordo), Kuhn Wildlife Pond (Cerro Gordo), Pilot Knob Pond (Winnebago), Alice Wyth Lake (Black Hawk), Middle Sabula and Green Island lakes (Jackson), Credit Island Lagoon (Scott), and a storm water retention pond in Guttenberg.
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Number of dead whales and dolphins in the Gulf at least 50 times higher
Many more dolphins are dying in the Gulf than are officially counted. New research released today shows that the average number for most species is at least 50 times higher than what’s reported now, a conservative figure according to the authors.
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The death toll of animals that perished as a result of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be 50 times higher than presently believed, according to a new study in the latest issue of Conservation Letters.
Until now, fatality figures have primarily been based on the number of recovered carcasses. Data on this varies depending on the source and the date of the count, but the authors report that as of Nov. 7, 2010, 101 whale, dolphin, and porpoise carcasses had been detected across the Northern Gulf of Mexico.
Past numbers of carcasses reflect just 2 percent of actual animal deaths, according to the study, so the true number of fatalities for cetaceans alone as a result of the spill could be in the thousands.
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15-20 dead gulls monthly at San Fran pier - mold to blame
Earlier this month The Bay Citizen published a story about the alarming number of western gulls that are dying near San Francisco’s industrial Pier 94. The article, “Mold Mystery Surrounds SF Bird Deaths”, states a preliminary investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game may have found the cause.
According to the article, “The department found 15 to 20 dead or dying gulls monthly, according to California Fish and Game Warden William O’Brien. It performed autopsies on a number of dead gulls and found that growing inside their lungs was a mold called Aspergillus, which suffocated the birds.”
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