Is it going to be a bad summer for fish?
Delmarva Now reports that so far this summer, there have been three major “fish kills” in the peninsula’s waterways. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the whole summer will be bad, but it certainly hasn’t been fun for area residents, who have called to report streams and creeks full of dead fish and birds congregating to scavenge the remains.
A fish kill, as I learned in Bio 101 and was reminded by the Delmarva Now article, happens when a the population of fish in a body of water exceeds the amount that can survive on the oxygen provided by algae and other aquatic plants. This is particularly a problem with large populations of small fish, who can quickly fill a body of water past the point of sustainability. The fish are fine during the day, but at night, the algae stop producing oxygen, and all the fish in the body of water are suffocated.
In this case, the small fish population that is thought to have caused the fish kills is menhaden, fish also known as a pogie that is sometimes used as bait. The high populations of young menhaden in Delaware’s waterways could be a bad sign for fish kills for the rest of the summer, especially when combined with the kind of heat waves we’ve been having.
Still, tourists, even those who plan on going swimming or boating in the fresh water, should not have to worry too much about this problem. The local authorities are currently working with the nonprofit Surfrider group to make sure that both residents and locals will be updated on any future fish kills or other health risks.
For the original story by Molly MacMillan, see here: ://delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080625/NEWS01/806250382&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL