Fish Kill Event - Yellow River
Dead fish were observed both upstream and downstream of the Smith Rd. bridge on the Yellow River, but only below the confluence with the unnamed tributary in section 17. North of Postville.
- Event ID
- 462
- Date of Kill
- 3/17/2000
- Waterbody Type
- River/Stream
- Cause Origin
- Unknown
- Cause
- Unknown
- Mode
- N/A
- Magnitude
- 3 (1001 - 5000 fish killed)
- Estimated Fish Killed
- 4,860
- Kill Length
- 3.10 miles
- Valuation
- $623.35
- County
- Allamakee
- ESD Field Office
- FO 1
- Fisheries Office
- Decorah State Hatchery
- LongDD
- -91.56727
- LatDD
- 43.13851
- Created Date
- 10/26/2000 12:00:00 AM
- Last Update
- 4/1/2019 8:44:32 AM
Highlighted river segments indicate those impacted in part or whole by this fish kill event. It is not meant to represent the actual extent of the kill.
Water turbid and green, with high flow. The kill affected a 3.1 mile segment of the Yellow River. Dead fish were not observed in the unnamed trib that enters into the Yllow River in Sec. 17. A total of 12 species of fish were affected. After visually inspecting the habitat in the area that the fish kill occurred, we would rate the habitat as excellent. The bottom substrate of much of the stream is composed of gravel and cobble. Deeper water areas for fish overwintering locations are also available. The Smith Rd. Bridge is the upstream extent of the area in which we have stocked fingerling brown and rainbow trout. No trout were seen in any of the counts of dead fish. The total number of fish that were observed was very low for a stream of this size and habitat quality. In previous work by Paragamian (1986), between 3000 and 5000 fish/acre were seen in northeast Iowa streams of comparable sizes. We feel that there has been an unknown factor at work that has severly reduced the total fish community in this section of the Yellow River prior to the total kill that this incident has caused to occur.