June 9, 2009
Fish dying in Lake St. Clair in Michigan
Live fish taken from Lake St. Clair in Michigan show no outward sign of a disease that could have killed thousands of fish in recent days, a biologist said.
Dead fish, including bass, muskie, perch, smallmouth bass and walleye, have been washing up dead on the shores of the lake and fouling the water for days, The Detroit News reported. The lake, north of Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, lies on the U.S.-Canada border and between two of the Great Lakes, Michigan and Huron.Bob Haas, a state Department of Natural Resources biologist, said both living and dead fish have been sent to laboratories for testing. The dead fish may be too decomposed to yield any useful results, he said.
At this point, we're certain that this originated somewhere out on the lake because the winds have been from the northeast -- blowing all of the fish into the shore area, Haas said.
A major fish kill in Lake St. Clair in 2006 was blamed on viral hemorrhagic Septicemia.