Fish Kill Victims: Thousands of Fish Found Dead in Louisiana Pond

On June 18, a neighborhood pond in Prairieville, Louisiana, was found to contain thousands of dead fish within it.

Thousands of Dead Fish in Louisiana Pond

According to 999 KTDY, a resident woman who lives close to the pond mentioned to Baton Rouge television that she thought that the dead fish were simply geese feathers. This shows how many dead fish were there.

Inland fisheries technical advisor Robbie Maxwell from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) mentioned to WAFB that when oxygen levels in water go down, fish find it hard to breathe. At times, hot days may lead to fish kill cases. In other instances, such as when rainstorms occur, the water gets turned over, and lower oxygen levels seep into the water from the bottom

Per Newsweek, this recent fish kill was reported in a pond that is comparatively smaller. Hence, an increase in chemicals within the water or overpopulation could be the reason why the fish kill occurred.

Fish Kills

Though fish kills are not rare incidents, the phenomenon is quite complex, as the LDWF explains on their website.

Unlike what is widely believed, fish kills are rarely caused by human activities or pollution. Rather than this, environmental changes, including dissolved oxygen, temperature, acidity, and salinity, are the usual culprits for fish kills. While alterations among some factors may not be intrinsically lethal, they may lead to fish kills when combined with each other. The LDWF explains further that in several fish kill reports, it is impossible to point out the exact cause.

Newsweek also adds that the excessive amount of algae may also lead oxygen levels within the water to plummet. When waters contain excessive nutrient amounts, harmful algae blooms may result. Such blooms would later decompose and may take up oxygen of the water as they undergo this process of decomposition. As a result, marine life may face incredible dangers that lead to suffocation.

Per Nature World News, Julie Hagen, a representative of the Coastal Fisheries Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, explains that fish deaths, such as this one, typically occur in summer when temperatures go up. When the levels of dissolved oxygen within the water are insufficient, fish are unable to breathe. Hagen also stressed that aerobic respiration and photosynthesis are responsible for dissolved oxygen concentration fluctuations on a daily basis.

With climate change getting worse, specialists expect that the number of fish kill incidents will go up as bodies of water get warmer.

Nature World News adds that fish are endothermic by nature. This means that they have the same temperature as their surrounding waters. USA Today further reports that, according to global research director Andre Boustany from California's Monterey Bay Aquarium, when water warms up, the metabolism of the organism also rises. They then require larger amounts of oxygen.

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