dead fish large amounts

Dead Fish Wash Up In Lake St. Clair
State Tests Dead Fish

POSTED: Tuesday, June 9, 2009
UPDATED: 8:41 pm EDT June 9, 2009

ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. -- State wildlife experts are puzzled as to why thousands of dead fish are drifting ashore in St. Clair Shores.

In the past week, residents along 11 Mile to 7 Mile roads have found thousands of dead and rotten fish including, small mouth bass, muskie, walleye, perch and bass floating in their boat wells.

"I've spent all this morning cleaning this well out before we put our boat out," said resident Bruce Terwillger.

Fish Mysteriously Dying In Lake St. Clair

Officials from Michigan's Department of Natural Resources and biologists removed fish - both live and dead - from Lake St. Clair and sent them to a laboratory in Lansing for testing.

However, most of the fish are too decomposed to provide clues. The test results will not be back for six to eight weeks.

The fish apparently died in the lake and were pushed to the shore by easterly winds. The direction is now reversed and fish are blowing back out.

DNR Fish Research Biologist Bob Haas told Local 4 the fish showed no signs of an outward disease.

Lake St. Clair has seen its share of fish kills. In 2006, thousands of fish died from viral hemorrhagic septicemia, which is a disease that is comparable to the Ebola virus for fish.

In 2000, state officials attributed two large fish kills to the chlorine that was used in a wastewater treatment plant.

However, officials said the dead fish are not displaying similar qualities to the fish that died from VHS, and the water quality this year is excellent.

"One of the problems might be that the fish like small mouth bass are so abundant that they actually are in close enough contact that the disease can spread easily," said Haas.

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Text SizeDead Fish Wash Up In Lake St. Clair
State Tests Dead Fish
POSTED: Tuesday, June 9, 2009
UPDATED: 8:41 pm EDT June 9, 2009