As many as hundreds of thousands of small fish have turned up dead in a Mandeville-area waterway.
The fish kill, which has caused a school of Gulf Menhaden to go belly-up in Bayou Castine southeast of Mandeville, was caused by a lack of oxygen in the water.
Olivia Watkins, spokesperson for Wildlife and Fisheries, said the fish themselves caused the lack of oxygen.
The juvenile species of this fish, which are commonly referred to as pogies, often swim up into the bayou in large number to feed on the plankton that lives there.
If too many get into the bayou, where the oxygen levels are low due to lack of sunlight, the fish get stuck there and die.
Watkins said it has been determined that this is what caused the fish kill that occurred Tuesday morning.
“They basically killed themselves,” she said.
She said these fish kills are common during the fall in the bayous because of the feeding pattern and during summer because of the heat.
Watkins said Wildlife and Fisheries is still doing an assessment as to how many fish were affected.
However, she said, they are small fish and are expected to decompose quickly.
“Just part of the environment,” Watkins said. “It is nature at work.”
She said this occurrence happens in inlets and bayous across the coast.
Read the article at St. Tammany News.