It’s becoming a rite of spring like any other. Blooming dogwoods, budding azaleas and fish kills in western Virginia. The above pic (by Shenandoah riverkeeper Jeff Kelbe) is of a redbreast sunfish and shows the kind of lesions fish are exhibiting.

This time the first reports came in from the James River in Rockbridge County near Glasgow where the Maury enters. The fisherman who reported the kill said he saw about 20 dead smallmouth bass. In the past, the kills have affected smallmouth bass, rock bass and redbreast sunfish.

The phenomenon started in 2004 in the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, and expanded to the James, Cowpasture and Maury Rivers last spring.

Here’s the DGIF’s report on the fish kills: http://www.dgif.state.va.us/fishing/fish-kills.asp

It has some good information and related links.

This article from the Harrisonburg Daily News Record also has some background and speculation on the causes of the kills.

http://www.dnronline.com/news_details.php?AID=15703&CHID=2#

And this one by the T-D’s Rex Springston goes into more detail on past fish kills.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/969908/killer_of_fish_in_western_va_eases_scientists_search_for/index.html

What the heck, here’s another link. You can never have too much info, right? It’s from the Clarke (Co.) Times-Courier:

http://www.fnfsr.org/site/Fish%20Kill%20Information.html

Posted by Andy Thompson in • Outdoors • Fishing
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