A heat wave killed off 1,000 fish by asphyxiation in the manmade Lake Elizabeth in Fremont, California.
Lake Elizabeth spans 83 acres in the city’s Central Park. Town personnel started cleaning up dead fish in the lake Wednesday, and on Thursday, an outside expert determined that the heat was hurting the amount of dissolved oxygen in the lake.
Supplemental fresh water is being pumped into the lake to help mitigate the die-off.
“The excessive temperatures are causing the water oxygen levels to deplete, and therefore, they aren’t able to use the oxygen sufficiently that is remaining in the water. That’s causing them basically to suffocate,” Fremont Community Services Director Kim Beranek told Bay Area NBC affiliate KNTV-TV.
Around 1,000 dead fish had been removed from the lake as of Friday, city officials told Oakland Fox affiliate KTVU.
“We do get a small number of fish that die off every year,” Fremont city spokeswoman Geneva Bosques told The Mercury News, but “it’s so hot and the water is so shallow, in the last couple of nights the air hasn’t cooled off enough to lower the temperature at night. We haven’t gone in to do an in-depth analysis, but we believe it’s gotten shallower over time.”
The lake is restocked with catfish and trout annually. Sacramento suckers, crappie, and carp, are also seen there.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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