Dead Fish In Holland

[mathews_583]

Lake Macatawa in Holland
Has anyone seen the shores lately on lake Mac??
They are lined with dead fish ranging from carp, bass, sunfish, sheephead, etc. I live right near the lake and recently discovered this. i was stunned to see SOO many fish dead. It is truly unbelieveable. I will get pics to you as soon as i can. I talked to local tackle shop and they think there must be chemicals in the water. Anyone else seen this?its sad

[Rocky428]

Not sure but I have heard that lake referred to as "Lake Mack A Toilet" :yikes:

I believe there is also a fish advisory on that lake as well. Check it out before you consume any. Rocky428

[wanderlust]

Found this on another site it should help you out.

http://www.michiganmuskiealliance.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1154

[WOODS]

The Holland Sentinal had a artical on the front page wednesday. The say it may be from the water warming up to fast causing it to lose oxegen. Sounds fishy to me.

[mathews_583]

I obviously see the lake is very dirty, but I never imagined I would walk down the road in front of my house to the lake and see the shore lined with dead fish, i was stunned. The warmer water theory doesnt seem quite fitting to me, but i'm sure the truth will wash up soon.

[WALLEYEvision]

Not sure but I have heard that lake referred to as "Lake Mack A Toilet" :yikes:...
I've heard that too from some of the locals. Too bad, it's a nice looking lake.

[mathews_583]

I've heard that too from some of the locals. Too bad, it's a nice looking lake.
It's anything but nice looking, it's filthy.

[Hooked115]

I go to hope college in holland, and incidentally my chemistry professor started a research project called the lake macatawa watershed project trying to find out why lake mac is indeed so dirty due to excessive algae blooms. Anyway, he has alot of people that are constantly checking temperature and different levels of things in the water, so naturally when all of these fish started dying all of the local newspapers started calling him. He attributed it to the temperature change, right before all of these fish washed on shore and could be seen flopping around at the surface dying, the water temperature had risen 13 degrees in only ten days. That seems like a pretty significant change to me, and since most of the fish dying are larger in size or are of a species that is more vulnerable to dying from low oxygen levels, i think that blaming this on the temperature change and lack of oxygen is probably pretty ligitimate. Just thought i would share what i knew of the situation with everyone.

Joel Evenhouse

[mathews_583]

thanks for the inside info Joel. I guess that can be a logical explanation.

[waterfoul]

So what kind of fish are we talking here? Sheepshead? Carp? Bass? Eyes?

[icedperch]

My thought (with nothing to back it up) about why macatawa is so different from Muskegon or the other drowned river mouths is the size of the river feeding it. Or should I say flushing it. If you compare the waterflow of the Grand or Muskegon to the dinky Black, you wonder if there is enough push to flush out all the fertilizer from the huge crop of $$$$ homes on the shore.

I'm sure not going to argue that the Grand is clean, but the flow keeps stuff moving.

[waterfoul]

My thought (with nothing to back it up) about why macatawa is so different from Muskegon or the other drowned river mouths is the size of the river feeding it. Or should I say flushing it. If you compare the waterflow of the Grand or Muskegon to the dinky Black, you wonder if there is enough push to flush out all the fertilizer from the huge crop of $$$$ homes on the shore.

I'm sure not going to argue that the Grand is clean, but the flow keeps stuff moving.

This would be the major factor. And the Black runs thru a LOT of aggricultural land at a slow rate... not fast enough to flush out to Lake Michigan.

Having Padnos and Warner Lambert at one end... within casting distance of one another doesn't help either.

[dtg]

Another strange coincidence is over on the other side of the world in Zanzabar, some 400 dead dolphins washed up on the beach. What the heck is goign on???? I don't know if any of you listen to the Bob & Tom show, but they have a weekly talk with a guy by the name of Tim Badore and he reads reports about various animal related oddities, like that one summer we had all the squirrels washing up on the shores of Lake Michigan. And the fish that were were driven nuts by boat motors and jumping out of the water and pelting boaters in the noggin. I'm sure he'll be reading about this one next week. First suicide bombers, now suicide dolphins. It's all just another piece of the Great Animal Conspiracy.:lol:

[waterfoul]

"Here's Tim Bador... thank you very much"

[mathews_583]

So what kind of fish are we talking here? Sheepshead? Carp? Bass? Eyes?
All species:yikes:

[Salami]

97% Sheephead dead,theres vary few quality fish dead. the game fish that did die are just average winter kill. No worries:)

[mathews_583]

No Worries??

[Hooked115]

97% sheephead seems like a huge overestimate to me. From what iheard there was a decent amount of pike and other game fish washed up as well, and definitely in higher amount than a normal spring kill.

[Overdew]

Rise in dead fish is linked to weather

Warm water creates stress, experts say
May 1, 2006


BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER


Fishing sites on the Internet are abuzz with dark rumors of chemical spills, pesticide poisoning and government cover-ups after a large number of dead fish were found in southern Michigan lakes and rivers.
But biologists say the recent fish kills -- mostly in southeast Michigan and the Ohio waters of Lake Erie -- are the result of unusually high water temperatures and spawning stress.
Tony Zain of Roseville guides for bass and walleyes on the Detroit River or Lake St. Clair almost daily from April to November.
Zain said he saw "a lot of dead fish on St. Clair" near the end of the April. "There were carp and drum and muskellunge" dead, "but no walleyes or smallmouths.
"There's a lot of rumors floating around about how people think the DNR had something to do with it, but to me, it looks like something natural. You always see some dead fish in spring. There's just more of them this year, and that's probably because of the warm water."
Another angler who fishes on the Detroit River for walleyes almost daily is Nick Homayed of Dearborn Heights. He was surprised by the number of dead fish he saw and by the refusal of seagulls to eat them.
"There were dozens of them out there a few days ago, and mostly muskies," Homayed said last week. "The gulls would go over and look at them, but they wouldn't touch them. That's why a lot of people think it must have something to do with pollution."
Anglers on the Detroit River have seen large numbers of dead muskellunge, many 4 feet or longer. Gary Towns, a research biologist for the state Department of Natural Resources, said the fish probably were victims of spawning stress, which kills many muskellunge every spring.
The higher number of dead fish reported this year likely is the result of one of the warmest winters on record, Towns said.
Water temperatures increased about 15 degrees in two weeks in early April, kicking up the metabolism of the fish when relatively little food was available and they were using large amounts of energy.
Each winter muskellunge spend much of their energy building new reproductive systems.
The higher stress is on the females, who must create masses of eggs. Anglers report that a high percentage of the dead muskellunge were very big fish, and those almost always are females.
Towns said spawning stress makes fish more susceptible to disease. Most of the muskellunge floating on the Detroit River had been dead for some time, making it impossible to tell what killed them, "but we got a fresh one the other day, a 50- or 51-incher, and ran it to the Michigan State University lab to see if we can find any disease organisms," Towns said.
Some anglers said on Internet blogs that they were suspicious of a cover-up because seagulls wouldn't eat the dead fish, which they said was an indication that pollutants had poisoned the fish.
"The seagulls don't eat them because most of the fish have been dead for weeks, and they're rotting and covered with fungus," Towns said. "They lie on the bottom and then float to the surface after they bloat.
"Seagulls won't feed on rotten fish when there's fresh fish available."
Besides the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, numerous dead fish also have been found on Kent Lake at Kensington Metropark and on Lake Macatawa, just off Lake Michigan near Holland.


I think Eric Sharp is a Michigan-Sportsman member