High heat plays role in fish kill

If you own a pond or outside aquariums. Make sure your temps are good!! This heat wave is killer! Really!




FAIRMONT - A recent fish kill in Fairmont's lakes can't be completely attributed to the severe heat experienced earlier this week, although it certainly may have played a part.

According to Nate Hodgins, fishery specialist with the Department of Natural Resources, the carp that have been dropping off are late spawners, as the height of carps' spawning season occurred about three weeks ago.

"They may be coming out of spawn weaker and more susceptible to heat and disease," he said.

Combined with the unusually high temperatures over the last week, that spells trouble for the abundant species.

"When they're spawning, they swim to shallow waters, and the heat was a shock to their system," he said.

Surface water temperatures in the high 80s were recorded in the lakes this week.

"That's extremely unusual," said Fairmont city administrator Jim Zarling. "But we're seeing the same problems with the turkeys, the hogs and other livestock."

Hodgins said algae blooming in the lakes cause additional problems for the fish, as oxygen levels go up and down from day to night.

He said the kill could be accelerated by fish refusing to move out of waters with low levels of dissolved oxygen.

How long the dead carp will continue to turn up on Fairmont shores and how many aren't known.

"It will take awhile for them to come back," Zarling said. "It's hard to know if these are additional dead carp or if these are just other floaters being pushed to shore."

A similar fish kill was seen several years ago in Fairmont when high heat and humidity was experienced during the peak of the crappie spawning season.

"It happens, when we get the high heat and humidity," Zarling said. "We're cleaning them up as quickly as we can."

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