Massive fish kill in Lake Erie

Tens of thousands of dead fish stink up Lake Erie shore

news.blogs.cnn.com...

The dead fish included carp, sheepshead, perch, catfish and suckers, the Daily News reported, and Colby said most were of good size.

"I haven't seen anything like this in quite some time," the Daily News quoted him as saying. "The interesting thing is that most of the fish are sizable. There are very few little ones."

I live 1/2 A mile from Lake Erie, on the south shore. It's only a 20 minute walk away from my house. This happens every year. It's usually due to the dead zone. And with the consistently high temperatures this year I wouldn't be surprised if the dead zone was bigger than usual.

"I haven't seen anything like this in quite some time,"

I live there as well, and this one is much bigger than most... and the selection of the older fish is interesting and different. Plus, we've had very little cold weather storm activity this year. That lake is practically bathtub warm.

No way, lake michigan never got bathtub warm this year....i envy that one!

So you folks think it was mostly a result of temperature issues?
At least that is your initial guesstimate?

Originally posted by phroziac
No way, lake michigan never got bathtub warm this year....i envy that one!

Erie is really, really shallow compared to the other lakes. Plus it still probably gets more of that yummy, warming industrial runoff.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Yes, because it happens every single year, due to the dead zone. And with temperatures consistently higher than normal this year, it makes sense by my logic that the dead zone would be larger, hence killing more fish than normal.

I live in Sandusky right on the lake. There is nothing to see here please move along. This happens every year. Sometimes larger sometimes smaller.

Used to live on Lake Erie few years back and it was just so dirty

Originally posted by Iron7
Used to live on Lake Erie few years back and it was just so dirty

Yea it was nasty you couldn't pay me to get into it. Over the last 5 yrs or so it's gotten alot cleaner. You can see the lake bottom along most of the shore line, unless it's windy or after a storm.

Rueters ran this story today and they had a scientist saying that this does happen every year but that this was tens of thousands of fish whereas normally it's not nearly that many. His quote was something akin to "something is seriously wrong". Also the story included witnesses saying there was a brown milky colored film on the surface of the water in some areas. The gist was that scientists didn't think was simply from lake inversion/oxygen depletion. I'll try and dig up the link.

www.commondreams.org...

A bit more info I just stumbled across, apparently now seagulls are dying too.Seagulls dying off as well.

From the articles supplied it is evident that it is probably not a normal die off of fish and seaguls. Being that it is a lot bigger than normal and the type and size of fish are different makes it sound fishy. I guess we'll know more within a week.

This is not good.

Maybe I'm being a bitch... no, I know I'm being a bitch (lol)... but why do we need three threads on this subject in the same forum?

Bitching complete

reply to post by kimish


What is this "dead zone" in Lake Erie people keep referencing, I don't know anything about it.....*begins to google*

reply to post by GrimReaper86


That is the area where "The Grateful Dead" are popular I think.

reply to post by rickymouse


lol I don't think so, Found a good google article about it. Dead Zone. Turns out it's an issue with oxygen. It makes perfect sense that larger fish would die before smaller fish if that's the case because larger animals require more oxygen to live.