A massive amount of dead fish in Texas

A massive amount of dead fish started washing up on shore in Matagorda, about 95 miles southeast of Houston, Texas, USA. Kyle Naegeli said this was something he had never seen before: “This is one of the craziest things I’ve seen in my life,” he said “Just massive amounts of fish.”

“All of a sudden a huge amount of menhaden started to surface and then die,” Naegeli said to a national newspaper. “Pretty soon there were miles of menhaden washing up and dying along with other bigger game fish.”

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are currently investigating to try and identify the cause of the “incident”. It seems it may be due to an algae overgrowth. TPWD said that blooms have caused other massive fish kills in the same area before. But last report about potentially dangerous alga reported on the official pages of TPWD of Texas government didn’t talked about risks: “Upper Coast (Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake): No reports of red tide. Golden Crescent (Matagorda Bay and San Antonio Bay): No reports of red tide. Coastal Bend (Aransas Bay): No reports of red tide. Corpus Christi Bay: There have been no recent reports of discoloured water, respiratory irritation or red tide related fish kills within the bay system. Upper Laguna Madre: No new reports of red tide. Padre Island National Seashore (PINS): For up-to-date information about conditions in this area, please contact the Padre Island National Seashore directly. Rio Grande Valley Area (Lower Laguna Madre): No reports of red tide.”

Another cause could be a depletion of dissolved oxygen in the water. Steve D. Lightfoot, a spokesman for the TPWD, told USA Today that “menhaden enter the river channel from the Gulf in large numbers, which can deplete dissolved oxygen levels in the water.”

Originally published at Aneddotica Magazine.