Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

[Rajiv]

Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

More problems for BP?

Plaquemines Parish officials have asked state wildlife officials to investigate what they said is a massive fish kill at Bayou Chaland on the west side of the Mississippi River late Friday.



A massive fish kill was reported late Friday in Plaquemines Parish at Bayou Chaland, west of the Mississippi River.

Photographs the parish distributed of the area shows an enormous amount of dead fish floating atop the water.

The fish kill was reported to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries and the cause has not yet been determined, the parish said. The fish were found in an area that has been impacted by the oil from the BP oil spill, the parish said.

The dead fish include pogies, redfish, drum, crabs, shrimp and freshwater eel, the parish said.



Plaquemines Parish governmentThis is a closeup of the fish kill at Bayou Chaland in Plaquemines Parish.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said he has asked Wildlife & Fisheries for a quick determination of the cause. The parish has also requested testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"We can't continue to see these fish kills,'' Nungesser said in a news release. "We need some additional tests to find out why these fish are dying in large numbers. If it is low oxygen, we need to identify the cause."

A recent fish kill in nearby St. Bernard Parish was attributed to low oxygen levels in the water.

[LargoWinch]

Re: Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

I first thought that the top picture was an asphalt road. That is a lot of dead fish.

Thank you Mr. Dispersants?

[Rajiv]

Re: Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

Thank you Mr. Dispersants?

Possibly oil sheen - not allowing enough Oxygen to dissolve in the water.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

We have natural fish kills called, "the red tide" here on the Pacific Coast which are due to a natural warming of the surface waters of the eastern Pacific, especially during the onset of an El Nino. There may be a similar "red tide" event in the Gulf of Mexico due to warming of the surface water of that sea. If that is the case, then BP and its oil spill would not be culpable.

Red tides are a horrible and smelly event every six or seven years here on the Pacific Coast. Beaches are often closed to swimming during the red tide events, and sand flies and odour of decay make laying on the beach a miserable experience. The Gulf of Mexico probably has a similar cycle caused by its own surface sea temperature cycles.... If it does, enjoy the red tide experience caused by excessive warming and oxygen depletion in the surface water of that sea.

[bpr]

Re: Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

The die-off occurred during a time of year when a giant low-oxygen "dead zone" regularly forms off the Gulf, according to Prosanta Chakrabarty, a fish biologist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Agricultural runoff into the Mississippi River contains nutrients that support the growth of oxygen-hungry algae, which can choke out other sea life.
(Explore an interactive of the layers of life in the Gulf Coast ecosystem.)
The Gulf oil spill expanded this dead zone when a surge in oil-eating bacteria gobbled up even more oxygen, Chakrabarty said by email.
(Related: "Gulf Oil Spill a 'Dead Zone in the Making'?")
The body of water where the fish kill occurred becomes isolated during periods of low tide, which may have trapped the fish in a low-oxygen area, said Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries spokesperson Olivia Watkins.
Even so, "fish kills are not uncommon in this area, and if in fact this area was cut off from the Gulf by low tide, these fish would have suffocated," LSU's Chakrabarty said.
"We won't know the ultimate cause until further testing is done."


...


Some pictures of the fish kill—taken by P.J. Hahn, coastal zone management department director for Plaquemines Parish—show brown residue floating near the dead fish. Hahn told National Geographic News the residue is likely oil.
But in terms of spilled oil causing the fish kill, "I would still look at it from a wider vantage point," LSU's Kleinow said.
More likely is that Gulf oil is one of many "combined insults"—such as agricultural pollutants and water diversion, which leads to wetlands loss—that weakened the ecosystem and led to the giant die-off.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100916-fish-kill-louisiana-gulf-oil-spill-dead-zone-science-environment/


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...-oil-pictures/