This is unbelievable. When you first see the picture, it looks like asphalt leading into a road. The you realize you are looking at a large body of water, completely covered with dead fish.
So much of the damage has occurred underwater, with the dead just floating down to the deeper water, that we really don’t have a good persepective ont his tragedy. This is just a rare instance when what is happening (and has been for many weeks now) shows at the surface.
TruCelt - The article states that Louisiana Fish and Wildlife believes this kill was caused by low tides trapping the fish in shallow water, which heated up. They lacked oxygen. I’m not saying definitively BP was part of the cause, maybe driving the sealife closer to shore to be trapped, but I’d think that LA DNR would more likely want to make a claim from BP if they could.
But that’s certainly a lot of dead fish. IOmagine the smell when the temps are near 100!
We’ve been having the same problem here in New Jersey too, but it’s not as bad as what you have there. My link is for just the one type of fish, not most of the fish in the river. Our DEP is blaming the record high temperatures and low oxygen levels too.
I read your title as “Massive fish kill (people),” but realize it was intended as “massive fish-kill.”
I’ve seen some of those 15 foot catfish they have over there, and was afraid that one discovered a taste for blood. Now I find that we killed the fish. Crisis averted; go humanity!
With the typo, I also thought it was talking about Thailand or something. Okay, make that 10 foot catfish.
Holy Mackerel, that’s the second largest pile of dead fish I’ve ever seen.
The Louisiana coast environment sure is taking a beating lately, isn’t it? I wonder how this plus the oil spill will make for a lengthy recovery of the area.
In my home city (Montevideo) we get bouts of dead fish every now and then, if the currents and the tide are right (or wrong, in case you are one of the fish that kick the bucket) sea water displaces the water of the River Plate, fresh water fish die in throngs, specially catfish, and wash up on the beaches.
I don’t know about catfish, but you certainly wouldn’t want to step in one of these.
Believe me, if you’ve ever been finned by a catfish (venomous spines in pectoral and dorsal fins), you’d know that you do NOT want to step on catfish either.
“Attaining an unconfirmed length of 3 m, the Mekong giant catfish grows extremely quickly, reaching a mass of 150 to 200 kg in only six years. The largest catch recorded in Thailand since record-keeping began in 1981 was a female measuring 2.7 m (roughly 9 feet) in length and weighing 293 kg (646 lb). This specimen, caught in 2005, is widely recognized as the largest freshwater fish ever caught (although sturgeon can far exceed this size, they can be anadromous).”