Fish Kill

[JCWolfe]

Copied and pasted, was bound to happen and it did.

Fish kill reported in Lower Illinois River

By KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer

Published: 10/7/2011 2:40 AM

Last Modified: 10/7/2011 5:35 AM

Wildlife officials reported dozens of native fish were counted in a fish kill reported Thursday in the Illinois River below Tenkiller Dam and dozens more were carried off by vultures or were hidden below the murky water.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation stopped stocking trout in the river Sept. 20. It is one of only two year-round trout fisheries in the state. But only one trout was counted among the dead fish. Instead, biologists counted 21 paddlefish in the 25-30 pound size, between 75 and 100 blue catfish up to 8 pounds in size and 15 channel catfish dead on the spot. Walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass, drum, buffalo, shad and even one gar were found dead.

A fisherman who was at the pool below the sluice tube at the dam Wednesday evening reported the dead fish on Thursday morning, said Jim Burroughs, East Central Region fisheries supervisor.

Biologists arrived to find "literally hundreds" of vultures on the site and bits of fish remains scattered about and carcasses dragged away from the stream. Other dead fish likely were hidden below the murky water. "The count we have is actual fish identified and counted," Burroughs said. "There were considerably more than that."

The die-off would be considered a small kill at some larger rivers, he said. "The thing is that's a fairly small area. It's a pretty good-sized kill for that area."

Some fish died because they were stranded as water dropped, others most likely died due to low oxygen levels. Hundreds of fish in the river were "piping," sucking air at the surface of the water, he said. Biologists took an oxygen level reading of 1.48 parts per million in the pool where the fish died. State standards call for 6 parts per million with occasional dips to 5 as acceptable.

Online records for the Tulsa District Corps of Engineers gauge on the river at Gore has registered between 2 and 3 parts per million for days. Even when Southwest Power Administration runs water for power generation it has only been rising to between 4 and 5 parts per million. Power was generated Thursday afternoon and oxygen levels temporarily rose above 4 parts per million.

For years a leak in the sluice gate at Tenkiller Dam provided a trickle of water at about 75 cubic feet per second that kept the Lower Illinois River fishery going. The leak was fixed last year and so, legally, all the water the lake can hold is allocated to power and municipal uses.

The dying fish don't provide incentive to run water through the dam, said Ross Adkins, Tulsa District Corps of Engineers spokesman. "It's not that easy," he said. "That storage is paid for. There's just no water left that we can release."

Low oxygen levels likely killed the fish, Burroughs said. Still, the state Department of Environmental Quality is responding to the site, said public information officer Skylar McElhaney. "We respond just to see if there are any toxins or pollution sources contributing to the fish kill, just to make sure," she said.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=25&articleid=20111007_25_B2_Wildli325981

[OKFlyFisher44]

Very sad. It must be pretty bad if spoonbill, catfish, and bass are dying. I hope the stripers got out before it got really bad. The dinky stocker trout can be replaced but those 20-40lb stripers are hard to come by. I can go elsewhere to catch trout but to catch stripers in an enviroment like that is somewhat hard to come by. Although I hate to see the town of Gore and Marvals suffer economically, but they will. Most of those people come to trout fish...heh, not striper fish.

That river would be awesome with a minimum flow. We can all dream...

[lostinthecity]

Do more than dream...write your state and federal representatives. Write the people who are responsible for this and voice your concern.

Voice your outrage. This is not only about the trout. There's a plethora of other species in that river and many land animals that depend on that river. There's the economic loss to the region. And what about Watts? Didn't the ODWC buy a whole mile of the river with OUR legacy permit money. Now that is worthless. What a rip off!!

Write all these people. The SWPA is the one with their finger on the button and deserves special attention.

To kill 7 miles of river is a crime.

Tom Colburn

172 RUSSELL

SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

WASHINGTON DC 20510

 

(202) 224-5754

 

James M. Inhoff 

205 RUSSELL

SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

(202) 224-4721 

Colonel Micheal J. Teague

Commander, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

1645 South 101st East Avenue

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74128-4609

Mr. Jon Worthington

Administrator, Southwestern Power Administration

One West 3rd Street

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103-3519

Governor Mary Fallin

Room 212

State Capitol Building

Oklahoma City, OK 73105

[JCWolfe]

Like most of us who post here, I'm sure he already has written his representatives. It's a sad situation for fisherman and local economies

Do more than dream...write your state and federal representatives. Write the people who are responsible for this and voice your concern.

Voice your outrage. This is not only about the trout. There's a plethora of other species in that river and many land animals that depend on that river. There's the economic loss to the region. And what about Watts? Didn't the ODWC buy a whole mile of the river with OUR legacy permit money. Now that is worthless. What a rip off!!

Write all these people. The SWPA is the one with their finger on the button and deserves special attention.

To kill 7 miles of river is a crime.

Tom Colburn

172 RUSSELL

SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

WASHINGTON DC 20510

 

(202) 224-5754

 

James M. Inhoff 

205 RUSSELL

SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

(202) 224-4721 

Colonel Micheal J. Teague

Commander, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

1645 South 101st East Avenue

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74128-4609

Mr. Jon Worthington

Administrator, Southwestern Power Administration

One West 3rd Street

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103-3519

Governor Mary Fallin

Room 212

State Capitol Building

Oklahoma City, OK 73105

[lostinthecity]

Good--hope everybody concerned has.

Here are some more addresses. Emails on their websites. I personally think a letter shows more concern and is read by at least somebody.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Dr Benjamin Tuggle

P.O. Box 1306

Albuquerque, NM 87103-1306

USFWS is a player in this too. Who knows, maybe will help.

EPA Region 6 Main Office

1445 Ross Avenue

Suite 1200

Dallas, Texas 75202

Water quality below dam will be a problem. Fish kill will probably not set well. Who knows--EPA might help. Might also hurt. My dealings with EPA have not been positive.

And for what is it worth, I even I wrote the POTUS.

President Barack Obama

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

[OKFlyFisher44]

Yeah I have dropped emails and letters to a handful of "important individuals" but who knows how it will end up. Like I have said before, we're not in Montana where trout and water quality is a huge concern to people and political figures. It sucks but just how it is.