POSTED: 7:57 am EDT October 3, 2005
UPDATED: 8:24 am EDT October 3, 2005
State wildlife biologists have hit a snag in trying to figure out what
killed countless bait-sized catfish that washed up dead last week along the
Indian River Lagoon's banks, according to Local 6 News partner Florida
Today.
"It's very strange, and we really don't know why it's just the one
particular species," said Jeff Guenthner, a biologist at Fish and Wildlife
Research Institute in St. Petersburg. "We don't really see anything so far
that would indicate a specific cause."
Passing motorists could smell the rotting hardhead catfish Sept. 26 all the
way from U.S. 1, as steady winds lofted the fish to the lagoon banks of
Rotary Park, at the eastern end of Suntree Boulevard, Florida Today
reported. Winds carried the fish from neighborhoods along Riverside Drive to
the north in Rockledge to just north of Pineda Causeway.
State wildlife biologists found no evidence of a harmful algae bloom or
toxins in the water, even though the lagoon had a brownish, cloudy tint
during the fish kill, according to the report.
"There was no harmful algae blooms at the time that we took the sample,"
Guenthner said.
Examinations of the fish carcasses also yielded no clues.
Researchers scraped skin, liver and intestinal samples to test for bacteria.
Those test results are expected Monday.
