Please discuss the fish die off here.
Wisconsin Fishing Discussion
Lake Winnebago Fish Die Off
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I was hanging out at the sandbar boat party scene (Streich's) south of Oshkosh this weekend, still a fair amount of dead sheeps. The wind was in a favorable direction, or else it would have been a lot worse. Saw numerous dead ones floating out in the middle of the lake on our ride in and out.
One sheep near shore was still alive, yet it was so out-of-it I was able to walk up to it and put my foot one inch from it, in less than a foot of water. It didn't even flinch.
There was a persistent dead fish stench at Streich's. It came in waves, but I never really experienced anything quite like it there before.
Down by lock number 4 in Appleton, I saw a sheephead struggling to stay upright on the surface, clearly gasping it's last breaths. A couple dead ones also. Otherwise, the Fox didn't look as bad.
I'm sure some walleye fry were involved as typically they are heading for the lake as the whites go up. However, the CO testing was done on the dead and dying white bass in the area, again, caused by low flow and/or strong easterly winds resulting in a CO buildup in the water by MM.
"The Fox River, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has a history of fish kills, dating back to the late 1950s, with at least 58 fish kills occurring during April–October 1988. Twenty fish species, including lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens, were affected. In situ bioassay tests of fathead minnow Pimephales promelas identified the origin of toxicity to be a motor endurance testing facility. Additional testing showed carbon monoxide (CO) to be the cause of toxicity. Blood samples taken both during in situ bioassays and from captured fish during fish kill episodes showed blood carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels of 32–97%. Fish kill episodes were enhanced by flow reversals in the Fox River caused by seiches from 55,730-ha Lake Winnebago. The motor endurance testing facility remains in operation; however, testing has been reduced and is monitored for compliance."
The Mercury test engine thing was stopped because of the returning walleye fry return to the lake near the surface of the water, and the theory was that the props created a whirlpool that chopped them up and retarded there journey to the lake. They would suspend testing for a time to let the fry go by.
Swampdog, thank you. Yes i remember all the motors there. I always thought the exhaust was above water?
Then i was thinking if the props would seperate out the oxygen bubbles.
And of course the conspiracy of where the city wanted to go with the river corridor.
So that is how it played out? Been in the back of my mind for years what ever happened with it. Thanks.
Mercury Marine would run multiple test engines continually until they burned up. This pumped a lot of CO into the water. With a normal flow this was not an issue but as anybody that fishes the Fox by the mouth in Oshkosh knows that a low water flow combined with an easterly wind can stop or even back up the current. Think of it as a tidal flow. This concentrated the CO in the area of MM to a level lethal to the fish in the area. Engine testing was moved to the Fond du Lac facility because of this.
Yeah, im like 30years behind everyone. Trying to catch up.
I witnessed the one that got blamed on mercury. Still hoping to find a link or have another older person explain how it played out.
That one you could have walked across the river on the dead fish. I was working at the door factory at the time, so we stood at the bank wondering what happened.
I read the wpp and it mentioned about a fish die off associated with co or co2 asked in another,forum if that was from mercury marine. Didnt find out it was until this die off someone mentioned it but that post may have been deleted. Really want to know how that played out. At the time there was a conspiracy they didnt want industry on the river.
There was always this talk about what the city wanted, maybe it was true. You have the river walk and lights on the bridges etc. Morgans was supposedly off the 20year plan or whatever it was. Thats gone. But as i remember that was to be housing i think.
It'll clean up. There is fresh water coming in daily.
Md, see thats the kind of stuff that messes with my thinking. Is that a "mathimatical statement of flow vs lake area"? I would lean towards thinking there are back water areas,that dont change over that fast?? Or were these taken into account? I know the flow through the fox was crazy high but i always assumed areas like fond du lac were more run off.
Hmmm, i know water maintains level. How could it be that all areas of the lake drain at the same rate? Now ill be hung up trying to figure out how that works.
I talked to Ted Johnson from the DNR water quality management who by the way seemed to me to be a very descent guy. He told me that the farmers could dump tankers full of liquid manure in the lake and because of its size it wouldn't harm he lake as a whole and you would only see localized die off.?.?. He also told me that the recycle rate of Bago is similar to poygan which is Appx. 10 days. So that being said I would think if it were a spill of some sort it should be flushed out of the system by now, unless whatever it is is still finding its way into the lake with all the rain we've had. I've also noticed some weird type of algae suspended by the shoreline it almost looks like fish eggs but was along the entire length of the shoreline unless it was possibly shad eggs not sure.
My post about blaming cheerleaders etc wasn't in response to your post. It was in addition to your post. It was a joke acknowledging all the stuff that goes into the lake without thought.
The comment about my neighbor was about the excess he uses probably because its pretty cool how thick the foam comes out.
I doubt you would ever see me moderate anyones opinion.
So, hopefully you will share your findings because it would be interesting to alot of us i would think.
I think it will be like 2008 when people were shoving balls etc into their toilets etc trying to stop the water from coming into their basements and the city saying the sewer capacity was not the problem. Only to watch them replace the storm sewer year over year since.
Displaying 16 to 30 of 112 posts
