Hundreds of thousands of lifeless fish have washed up on the shores of California’s Lake San Antonio in an unprecedented mass die-off affecting a wide variety of species.
The deaths began last week, when smaller baitfish were found at the water’s edge on Friday, but in the days since, larger and larger species of fish have also washed up on the lake’s beaches.
“It seems like every fish species in the lake is being impacted. We have never seen this type of multispecies die-off, especially on this scale,” Bryan Flores, Monterey County chief of parks, told SFGATE.
The plague has prompted closure of the popular lake area, while officials test the water and clean up the shores, the County of Monterey said on Wednesday.
The dead fish included smaller shad, as well as trout, carp, crappie, catfish, and bass. One dead bass weighed between 3 and 4 pounds, said Monterey County officials.
“There is a large fish death event happening at Lake San Antonio,” the County of Monterey said in a Facebook post on Saturday. “The fish die off we alerted you to [last week] has gotten worse, and the lake is being closed as a public health precaution while testing and clean up is being done. All current campers and boaters are being asked to leave and no new guests will be admitted,” they said in a post on Wednesday.
The range of species affected and the sheer number of dead fish washing up is unprecedented for Lake San Antonio, which is an artificial lake formed by a dam on the San Antonio River. The lake is a popular destination for a variety of recreational activities, including camping, boating, hiking, and fishing.
It was initially suspected that the heat wave currently scorching California and the rest of the U.S. southwest may have killed many of the fish, causing them to wash up dead.
However, the heat would only be expected to impact fish that spend most of their time near the water’s surface, and even bottom-dwelling catfish are being found dead.
“We’re starting to see these fish that shouldn’t really be impacted by the heat … that’s when we said, wait a minute, something else might be going on,” Flores said.
