The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is telling everyone what they can do to help prevent fish kills, as this is about the time of year when it expects to find large numbers of dead fish washed up along shallow lakes and streams. DNR Fisheries Division research manager Gary Whelan tells us the spring fish kills start when vegetation under ice starts to die due to a lack of sunlight. That uses up oxygen, killing fish. Although the ice has been gone for a while, this is about the time you’d start to see the dead fish washing up.
“If it’s the right type of lake, shallow with a lot of weeds, those are the sorts of lakes we see it more often in,” Whelan said.
Whelan says you can help prevent spring fish kills.
“They’re related to the amount of nutrients that go into the lake that cause too much plant growth. If you have too much plant growth, that means more plants that die, and that means more dissolved oxygen that’s lost in the lake, and that means you’re probably going to have more dead fish.”
Therefore, he says be aware of what’s running off into your nearby waterways. Fertilizers, for example, can cause excessive vegetation in waterways. For more information on fish kills in Michigan, visit Michigan.gov/Fishing.
