Thousands of fish dead, Port Dover, Ontario Canada

This week we had decided to go down to Port Dover, a small beach community on Lake Erie, in Ontario. I have been going to this beach for about 5 years, about 5-10 times a year in a summer. Always been the same little town, the beach was always pretty clean. This week however, I was shocked to see thousands if not 10s of thousands of little fish (don't even know what kind, I'm sure someone will recognize), washed up on shore and still coming in from the lake. The beach is probably .8-1.2 km in length (not very big), and the fish stretched from one end to the other and as far into the lake as 10-15m (from shore).

I asked some people if they had seen anything like that before, no one really had. It was normal to see some dead fish here and there even a group of them washing up in small numbers, but this was a lot of fish. They also all seemed to be coated in something, I don't know if the coating happened naturally or not I'm sure someone can tell.

Most people were turned off to swimming, but some just waded past and once you got out there it was pretty normal.

Okay, so I have some really good high quality pictures however, no idea how to upload them. If someone, maybe a mod, could message me and help me out that would be great. Right now I have the pictures sent to me via email.

reply to post by Ghandi


That whole lake and surrounding area are heavy industrial areas. I hope nothing too bad got into the eco-system. Could be something they are covering up from one of the local factories. The great lakes are horrible for their chemical disasters. Sorry to hear they messed up your beach, I hope it is a random natural occurence, but I doubt it.

Natural Gas fracking is going on in New York State and has the possibility of seeping into the water supply, but that would not coat the fish in anything.....

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Port Dover is located in Norfolk county, not much industrial action in that particular area of Erie, however there is a lot closer to the Buffalo/Niagara area. It's about 100km from Buffalo. Possible that something leaked in that area but if it did I would guess it would head east, towards the lake Ontario/the ocean. This place is West of there.

Lake Erie is the smallest of the lakes in volume and is exposed to the greatest effects from urbanization and agriculture. Because of the fertile soils surrounding the lake, the area is intensively farmed. The lake receives runoff from the agricultural area of southwestern Ontario and parts of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Seventeen metropolitan areas with populations over 50,000 are located within the Lake Erie basin. Although the area of the lake is about 26,000 km2 (10,000 square miles), the average depth is only about 19 meters (62 feet). It is the shallowest of the five lakes and therefore warms rapidly in the spring and summer, and frequently freezes over in winter. It also has the shortest retention time of the lakes, 2.6 years. The western basin, comprising about one-fifth of the lake, is very shallow with an average depth of 7.4 meters (24 feet) and a maximum depth of 19 meters (62 feet)

US EPA - Great Lakes

reply to post by Ghandi


My thoughts exactly, not only is Buffalo a major factor for waste in that area, but there are many tributaries that feed into the lakes. Those creeks ad similar streams are some of the main causes.

ETA:Who knows what else is going on too. Could be anything,

double post!

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Now that I think about it, with all the congestion around the great lakes and all the factories, it's only a matter of time before the entire thing turns into a waste dump.

eta: still waiting on help to get these pictures posted, really does all the explaining, im also curious as to what kind of fish they are