WFCN –
This week, authorities in California shut down a lake that had been open to the public since the Fourth of July holiday weekend due to a huge fish die-off.
Experts from both the state and San Antonio Lake, in southern Monterey County, roughly 150 miles south of San Jose on California’s Central Coast, have not yet pinpointed the cause of the fish kill. On Wednesday, the county government decided to close the lake.
The banks of the lake have been littered with various sorts of dead fish for more than a week. Authorities in Monterey County announced the death of a fish that weighed three to four pounds. Witnesses to the sight of thousands of fish on the beach of the lake were captured by officials.
According to a statement from the county’s Chief of Parks, Bryan Flores, “We must keep the public safe by closing the park until it is known that this is not being caused by a biological vector or pollutant that could harm the public.” This means that the park will be closed until that is determined.
There has never been a die-off of this magnitude or intensity at the lake, according to Flores, who spoke with ABC7 News in San Francisco. His office includes one person who has worked there since the 1990s.
The impact appears to be on every fish species in the lake, according to Flores, who spoke with SFGATE.
Have other areas of California had fish kills of a similar kind?
In the time between July 4 and July 9, more over a thousand pounds of fish perished at Fremont’s Lake Elizabeth in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Spotted with carp, crappie, trout, and catfish, Lake Elizabeth is a man-made body of water spanning 83 acres in Fremont’s Central Park.
The majority of the deceased fish were carp, according to officials from Fremont. No further die-offs have occurred since July 9, according to Tuesday’s report.
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The beaches of Lake San Antonio have been littered with hundreds of lifeless fish since the weekend of July 4. After biologists and county officials restricted the lake to guests, they still don’t know what caused the die-off. Monterey Peninsula
How come fish populations in California lakes are plummeting?
The fish died because the water’s dissolved oxygen levels were too low, according to a news release from a city official in Fremont.
“The fact that we are not getting the afternoon and evening cooldowns we historically experience here in Fremont is exacerbating the problem and not allowing the water temperature to drop and partially improve overnight,” municipal leaders wrote.
In a statement, Monterey County officials stated that their staff had initially suspected the same cause for the die-off in Lake San Antonio. However, testing conducted by state biologists revealed that the oxygen levels were normal.
The heat shouldn’t be affecting these fish, but now we’re seeing them… According to Flores, that’s when they realized something else could be happening.
The water samples from Lake San Antonio were sent for analysis to determine if they contained any harmful chemicals or algae. Time needed for testing could be several weeks. We will wait to open the lake to the public until we know more about the die-off from the tests.