Fairhaven fish kill

[UserRemoved1]

State Investigating Dead Fish Washing Ashore - Boston News Story - WCVB Boston

[StriperWriter]

Hopefully it was just Blues and Stripers pushing them right onto the beach!

[Rockport24]

wow that's nuts! good for chum I guess.

also, I couldn't resist this quote
"said Eric Borgeson, a father of four who's been vacation there his entire life."

he's been on vacation there is entire life? Sounds like a good life to me!

[Saltheart]

I saw this happen in I believe Clinton, CT. There was so little oxygen the crabs were climbing the pilings and onto shore to breath. Of course the fish don't have that luxury.

They say sometimes its just too many fish but sometimes its because of a combination of too many fish and something happening to reduce the oxygen level. One culprit I believe is if a heavy rain washed fertilizer or soap or some organic mold or whatever into the water. Sometimes the fertilizer results in a big algae bloom and the algae suck up the oxygen. I believe the term is COD or BOD (Chemical or Biological Oxygen Demand). It goes very high and the fish suffocate.

[Raider Ronnie]

Saw this happen up in Booth Bay Harbor a bunch of years ago.
Pogies floating everywhere.
The whole harbor stunk of dead pogies !

[Plum Crazy]

Just saw that on TV. Lack of oxygen so they say. I hope they do something with all of those pogies, there sure was a lot of them.
I'm gonna blame the seals, they wreck everything.

[Raven]

all those sweaty clothes getting cleaned with concentrated soap
. the loads would only require a half cup but they are adding 1 1/2 cups per load.

[Finaddict]

It was a regular summer occurrence in Western Long Island Sound in the 70s and 80s ... the blues would pack the pogies/bunker into the back of the harbors ... Greenwich Harbor had it all the time so did some of the others further west.

You could smell them while driving past on the highway, it typically took a few days to get the tide to clear the harbor of dead pogies. Boy were they pungent.

Had to love it.

[Tagger]

saw resident lady on the news .. "We own this beach" .... sickning ..

[Redsoxticket]

I doubt that the lack of O was the cause of the fish kill. They may have been chased on the beach. Also the wind yesterday evening was southerly which may be a factor along with the extra high tide.
The topography of the west side of west island and points north are huge magnets for bluefish.
The island has narrow streams that hold tons of small bait such a peanut bunker. I did not see how these streams connected to the bay but they had to get there some how. Could it be that the wind and tide conditions flooded the gateway to the bay water and the bunker tried to make passage. The beach is one of solitude, located in a cove like setting unspoiled by boats creating a perfect habitat for bait fish.
Once the blues attacked there is not many directions the bunker can go. The south direction from the beach is a point and the north direction are the coves that are lack of better words are like are almost land locked.

The island converted their outdated septic system to sewer treatment located on the island. This may be a factor depending where the discharge pipe is located. This very well may be a reason for lack of O but not knowing the details of sewer design I wouldn't rush to judgment.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[stripermaineiac]

This has happened many times over the yrs up here in Maine and other places. Lack of oxygen due to the fish being hearded together by larger fish eating them. It gets so bad at times that they depleat the oxygen enough to kill the lobsters in the floating lobster crates-called cars-. Was so bad in some areas that the decaying bunker fouled the water for the rest of the season. even in rivers like the Kenebec,sasanoa,Sheepskot and several others.It's amazing to see it happen. Watched the blues pack then together so tight they were 100yrds across and as many as could had their heads out of water. Then they just started to die by the thousands. Stripers swam away but the blues were stuck in the mess they made an died with them.It's actually a very common occurance in shallow coastal waters.Just not always in the same location each time. Ron

[PaulS]

Happens frequently in Conn.

[piemma]

use to happen in EG Bay all the time to "peanuts". haven't heard about it in a couple of years

[JohnR]

Happens all over with all kinds of fish. Even as a kid in the back creeks off the Chesapeke we had it frequently with herring. As a kid all I knew was Elways stunk up the neighborhood (say Alewifes with a Balt'more accent sounds like Elways, like John Elway )

[RIJIMMY]

in 2008 I got an email from save the bay which had a you tube clip of a big bunker kill in Wickford. they were going on and on about the health of the bay and how this was a bad sign blah, blah, blah. I called them up and gave them an earful on how thousands of bunker were coralled by blues way up into the marshes, late July, extremely hot weather. I witnessed the carnage on many ocassions. the kill had nothing to do with the cleanliness of the bay but just that that many fish cant live in that little water and there is no place for them to go! the bunker were literally under my boat in the slip and the blues were slamming into my hull chasing them as I was docked.

[FishermanTim]

Add warmer than usual water and the O2 get depleated even faster.

[Finaddict]

In the case of Western Long Island Sound ... come August, with the heavy rains, local sewage systems overflow and spill into the water ... causing massive algae blooms ... which in turn causes a huge depletion of oxygen that basically kills every thing in the sound ... lobster traps come up with dead lobsters ... it was a huge problem ... scientists tracked it up past Bridgeport ... but I have not lived there in more than a decade ... but it was always a problem ...

... the effect on the fishing was that the fish disappeared when the oxygen levels started to drop ...

... so wouldn't say that it was the cause of the huge fish kills that happened in the harbors, because we experienced many of them first hand ... but the warmer water with depleted levels of oxygen could definitely add to plight of the pogies ... oxygen levels in the warmer waters are lower and when the pogies are jammed up into the harbors fin to fin, they are toast ...