In an effort to alleviate concerns voiced by the general public, the Florida LAKEWATCH (FLW) program recently published a 16-page booklet that discusses five of the most common natural causes of fish kills including: low dissolved oxygen; spawning fatalities; mortality due to cold temperatures; diseases and parasites; and toxic algae blooms. Human-induced fish kills are also covered along with a section on fish stress—a component of virtually every fish kill situation. The last section of the circular provides steps one can take to determine the cause of a fish kill. This includes a listing of fish health diagnostic laboratories for those who want to take a more active role and are willing to collect fish and/or water samples for analysis.
Keywords: Alafia River, algae bloom, Aphanizomenon, aquatic microbes, biological activity, Cylindrospermopsis, Anabaena, contaminants, dead fish, decomposing plants and/or algae, diseases, dissolved oxygen (DO), ecosystem, fish kill, fish stress, general adaptation syndrome, hormones, hormone induced, human impacts, human induced, lake turnover, live fish, Microcystis, mortality, naturally occurring fish kills, oxygen levels, parasites, Prymnesiam, osmoregulation, oxygen depletion, rainfall, spawning fatality, stratification, tilapia, toxic algae, water sample, water temperature
Note: Circular 107 is available in Portable Document Format (pdf) only. It can be obtained as a single PDF file by clicking on the "Printer Friendly Version" link above (file size = 2.2 MB).
Photos used with permission as credited.