Fish Kill Event - Easter Lake
end of dam spillway
- Event ID
- 538
- Date of Kill
- 9/6/2002
- Waterbody Type
- Lake
- Cause Origin
- Natural
- Cause
- Environmental
- Mode
- N/A
- Magnitude
- 3 (1001 - 5000 fish killed)
- County
- Polk
- ESD Field Office
- FO 5
- Fisheries Office
- Boone Research Station
- LongDD
- -93.55506
- LatDD
- 41.54565
- Created Date
- 10/4/2002 12:00:00 AM
- Last Update
- 3/14/2019 8:44:21 AM
A few dead shad were observed along the spillway, which is probably 200+ yards long. There isa shallow pool area below the spillway, in this pool and on down stream were hundreds to thousands of dead shad. Large schools of live shad were also observed. Very few stressed fish were noted. Some shad appeared to be trying to swim back up the spillway.
No unusual odors or any evidence of a runoff or spillage event were noted. The water was very green with algae. There were areas along the path along the spillway where it appeared people had been seining shad and dumped them on the ground.
We observed the lake area around were it dumps down the spillway and observed no dead or stressed fish. We talked to two park workers and they said they hadn't heard any reports of dead fish. We also talked to 2 fishermen fishing above the spillway and they said they hadn't noticed any dead or struggling fishes.