Massive Fish Kill at Beaver Lake in Saint Paul, MN!!!11!!

[MineralMan]

My neighborhood lake, just a few blocks from my home in St. Paul, finally lost its ice yesterday, so I wandered down there to check it out. I usually fish there a few times a year. Well, when I got there, a couple of moms with their kids in the park adjacent to the lake were taking photos off the fishing pier. I knew just what they were photographing.

When they left, I went down there, and sure enough, there were hundreds of dead fish stacked up against the dock and the shoreline. A flock of seagulls was busy out in the middle of the lake, too, grabbing a meal from the many, many dead fish floating out in the lake. Bluegills, sunfish, crappies, and a couple of largemouth bass made up the pile of fish.

Pesticides? Toxic runoff? What could have killed all these fish? Should I be frightened?

Nope. None of the above. Every year, during the time the lake is frozen over, usually up to 18" deep, fish die. Some die of old age during the winter. Some die from there being too little oxygen in the water. Thousands and thousands of fish die every winter in that little 60 acre lake. Then, when the ice suddenly disappears, as it always does in a single day or two days in the spring, those dead fish are all floating at the surface. Wind blows many of them to the shoreline, where they collect in windrows along the shore, and against piers and docks.

It's pretty alarming, unless you know why they're there. The raccoons, birds, neighborhood dogs, and cats have a field day eating up this spring bounty. The rest rots and sinks to the bottom of the lake, where it composts and provides nutrient for the native aquatic plants.

But, for those two moms, I'm sure all those dead fish created a minor panic for them. The same picture could be taken at lakes all over Minnesota this week and for the next couple of weeks, as the lakes become free of a winter's worth of ice. It happens ever year, and on every shallow lake in the state. And every year, people take photos and call someone in alarm over this natural phenomenon. In a couple of weeks, after the floaters are gone, I'll head back over to Beaver lake and catch and release a few dozen of the fish that didn't die. Fishing season begins again.

[Brickbat]

1. What do you mean, "fishing season begins AGAIN?"

WTF you been doing all winter, sitting inside??//??/???

[MineralMan]

2. I do not ice fish. Not. Sitting on a bucket in freezing cold weather,

hoping to catch little fish I wouldn't eat anyhow just doesn't appeal to me. I'm a transplanted Minnesnowtan, not a crazy person. :rofl:

[HereSince1628]

3. Winter kill is pretty common

It's a result of low oxygen content in the water. It's common cause is too much algae in the fall. As it decomposes,
the bacteria consume oxygen and bring about conditions that kill the fish.

Very common in ponds and shallow lakes throughout the upper midwest.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes. That was the point of my post.

But...thanks. The lake didn't actually have a winter kill event. It has two aerators and maintains open water near them all winter. This is just the normal die-off that occurs every year. If you stood on the fishing pier and actually looked into the water, there were plenty of fish of all sizes swimming merrily around. A real winter kill is devastating for a small lake like this one, and there are a number of non-aerated lakes like that that winter kill almost completely every year. This was just a bunch of dead fish. No big deal.

[HereSince1628]

5. Just backing you up dude.

shoot me.