Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

[Pathfinder]

Thursday, Dec 30, 2010

Health Department Advising About Dead Fish Near Roseville Community Boat Ramp on Arkansas River

Little Rock -The Arkansas Department of Health is advising people fishing near the Roseville Community Boat Ramp (in Logan County off Hwy 309) on the Arkansas River not to eat any of the dead fish that are floating in the water in that area. There are several thousand fish- primarily Drum fish��"that have been killed. As a reminder, it is generally unsafe to eat any dead fish found floating in bodies of water. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality are investigating the situation in an effort to determine the cause


Contact: Office of Health Communications and Marketing
Ann Wright, 501-661-2474

http://www.arkansas.gov/health/newsroom/index.php?do:newsDetail=1&news_id=348

[Pathfinder]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

State commission says dead fish now cover 20-mile section of Arkansas River

By Associated Press
6:20 p.m. CST, January 1, 2011

OZARK, Ark. (AP) ? An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman says dead drum fish now cover a 20-mile section of the Arkansas River near Ozark.
...
Stephens says some of the live drum fish were sick and will be sent to a lab at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff for testing.

Full text:

http://www.wreg.com/lifestyle/sns-ap-ar--deadfish,0,7329721.story

[Emily]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

There was a big mortality event in 2005 in this species in Canada from an emerging virus. Full text for this at link below.

http://biology.usgs.gov/faer/documen...sden_et_al.pdf
DISEASES OF AQUATIC ORGANISMS Vol. 76: 99?111, 2007
Mortality event in freshwater drum Aplodinotus
grunniens from Lake Ontario, Canada, associated
with viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus, Type IV

[Pathfinder]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

Up to 100,000 fish found dead along Arkansas River

Officials suspect disease, not pollutants, as cause of death

msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated <ABBR style="DISPLAY: inline" class="dtstamp updated" title=2011-01-03T16:31:47 itxtvisited="1">1 hour 4 minutes ago</ABBR> 2011-01-03T16:31:47



Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Dead fish are seen along the Arkansas River.

Excerpt:

"The fish deaths will take about a month" to determine a cause, Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, told msnbc.com.
...

The mass kill occurred just one day before thousands of blackbirds dropped dead from the sky in Beebe, Ark., which is 125 miles away.

Officials said 95 percent of the fish that died were drum fish ? indicating that the likely cause of death was disease as only one species was affected.


Full text:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40887450/ns/us_news-environment/

[English Teacher]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

I am, as my screen name says, an English teacher, so could someone enlighten me: what possible link there could be between the dead fish and the dead redwing blackbirds? Is there any such thing as a cross-species virus that would affect both, or are we looking at a coincidence? Thanks.

[Pathfinder]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp" xmlns:asp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ASPNET/20" xmlns:__designer="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/designer" xmlns:SharePoint="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls " xmlns:ddwrt2="urn:frontpage:internal"><TBODY><TR>< TD class=tableCell colSpan=2>Arkansas River Fish Kill Investigation Continues




</TD></TR><TR><TD class=tableCell width="20%">Date</TD><TD class=tableCell width="80%">01/03/2011 </TD></TR><TR><TD class=tableCell></TD><TD class=tableCell>
Description


OZARK?Anglers and residents along the Arkansas River near the Ozark Lock and Dam wrapped up 2010 witnessing more than 83,000 dead and dying fish on the surface of the river.

According to Chris Racey, AGFC assistant chief of fisheries, the fish kill was reported on Dec. 29 and covered about 17 miles of river from the Ozark Lock and Dam downstream to River Mile 240, directly south of Hartman, Ark.

Bob Limbird, district fisheries biologist for the Russellville area, said, ?We started receiving reports on Wednesday night. (AGFC Fisheries Management Biologist) Frank Leone and Wildlife Officer Ben Sisk arrived at dark and scanned the water with a spotlight. They saw a lot of dead fish on the shore and decided to come back with more manpower Thursday morning to properly assess the situation.?

On Friday, 17 AGFC personnel loaded into six boats and surveyed the stretch of river affected by the kill.

?We sampled the south bank along the river channel,? said Limbird. ?Most of the fish were concentrated from the dam to Okane, with a few here and there stretching almost to Horsehead Creek.?

About 99 percent of the dead fish (about 82,680 estimated fish) were freshwater drum. A few yellow bass, white bass and sauger were found in sampled areas, but may be unrelated to the drum kill.

?Most of the fish were freshwater drum between 6 and 11 inches long,? said Limbird.

?We picked up five drum that were dying and submitted them to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for testing.?

The fish samples are being analyzed, but it could take up to 30 days for full test results.

http://www.agfc.com/Pages/newsDetails.aspx?show=147

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- end #mainContentBody --><!-- end #mainContent --><!-- end #content -->

[hawkeye]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

English Teacher, sometimes our minds try to make a connection that may not exist. A long time ago 2006/2007, some were looking for early detection and for emerging diseases with kills being a possible indicator. In my opinion, these things happen in cycles. I don't know why they occur, but they do.

Some places have had kills going on for years

Shenandoah

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17963

I will start to get concerned when/if pigs and cats start dropping dead.

[Pathfinder]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

<TABLE id=apex_layout_271110100662109808 class=formlayout border=0 summary=""><TBODY><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Archive Number</TD><TD noWrap align=left>20110104.0035</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Published Date</TD><TD noWrap align=left>04-JAN-2011</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Subject</TD><TD noWrap align=left>PRO/AH/EDR> Undiagnosed die-off, fish - USA: (AR), freshwater drum</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, FISH - USA: (ARKANSAS), FRESHWATER DRUM
************************************************** **********
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

[1]
Date: Mon 3 Jan 2011
Source: CNN [edited]
<http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/01/02/arkansas.fish.kill/>


Arkansas officials are investigating the death of an estimated 100
000 fish in the state's northwest, but suspect disease was to blame,
a state spokesman said Sunday [2 Jan 2011].

Dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile
[32 km] stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles
[200 km] northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A tugboat operator discovered the
fish kill Thursday night [30 Dec 2010], and fisheries officials
collected some of the dying animals to conduct tests.

Stephens said fish kills occur every year, but the size of the latest
one is unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame. "The
fish kill only affected one species of fish," he said. "If it was
from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

Ozark is about 125 miles [200 km] west of the town of Beebe, where
game wardens are trying to find out why up to 5000 blackbirds fell
from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve [31 Dec 2010].

There has also been a die-off of birds in Arkansas. Biologists
believe the bird deaths were stress-related from either fireworks or
weather and are unrelated to the fish kill near Ozark, Stephens said.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

******
[2]
Date: Mon 3 Jan 2011
Source: Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC) [edited]
<http://www.agfc.com/Pages/newsDetails.aspx?show=147>


Anglers and residents along the Arkansas River near the Ozark Lock
and Dam wrapped up 2010 witnessing more than 83 000 dead and dying
fish on the surface of the river.

According to Chris Racey, AGFC assistant chief of fisheries, the fish
kill was reported on 29 Dec 2010 and covered about 17 miles [27 km]
of river from the Ozark Lock and Dam downstream to River Mile 240,
directly south of Hartman, Arkansas.

Bob Limbird, district fisheries biologist for the Russellville area,
said, "We started receiving reports on Wednesday night. (AGFC
Fisheries Management Biologist) Frank Leone and Wildlife Officer Ben
Sisk arrived at dark and scanned the water with a spotlight. They saw
a lot of dead fish on the shore and decided to come back with more
manpower Thursday morning [30 Dec 2010] to properly assess the situation."

On Thursday [30 Dec 2010], 17 AGFC personnel loaded into 6 boats and
surveyed the stretch of river affected by the kill. "We sampled the
south bank along the river channel," said Limbird. "Most of the fish
were concentrated from the dam to Okane, with a few here and there
stretching almost to Horsehead Creek."

About 99 percent of the dead fish (about 82 680 estimated fish) were
freshwater drum. A few yellow bass, white bass, and sauger were found
in sampled areas, but may be unrelated to the drum kill.

"Most of the fish were freshwater drum between 6 [15 cm] and 11
inches [28 cm] long," said Limbird. "We picked up 5 drum that were
dying and submitted them to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
for testing."

The fish samples are being analyzed, but it could take up to 30 days
for full test results.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Drum fish (_Aplodinotus grunniens_) may go by a variety of names
including, gaspergou, gou, sheepshead, and of course, drum fish.
These fish are native through North America, from Canada through
Mexico. They can grow quite large, as the world record is over 54
pounds [24.5 kg].

It remains relatively odd that primarily only drum fish are dead.
Toxins would likely affect other fish. While there are other fish
affected, they are very few. If this were a school of fish and some
one decided to dynamite them out of the water, perhaps we might get
this kind of kill, but even that is doubtful. This is extensive in
scope and numbers.

We look forward to results of the necropsy and testing results.

A photo of the freshwater drum fish may be found at
<http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/popup.cfm?photo=25> - Mod.TG]

[The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Arkansas is available
at <http://healthmap.org/r/0l2D>. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]

[ProMED-mail would like to thank the many subscribers who sent the
same or similar articles on this event. - Mod.MPP]

[see also:
2010
----
Undiagnosed fish die-off - USA (05): (MI) RFI 20100618.2056
Undiagnosed fish die-off - Canada: (ON) 20100613.1987
Undiagnosed fish die-off - USA (04): (WV, OH, PA) columnaris 20100610.1946
Undiagnosed fish die-off - USA (03): (WV, OH, PA) 20100601.1827
Undiagnosed fish die-off - USA (02): (NJ) koi herpesvirus susp. 20100528.1773
2006
----
Undiagnosed fish die-off - USA (WA): botulism susp. 20060621.1709]
...................................tg/mj/mpp

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:2425782894181960::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,86486

[Pathfinder]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

<TABLE id=apex_layout_271110100662109808 class=formlayout border=0 summary=""><TBODY><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Archive Number</TD><TD noWrap align=left>20110107.0085</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Published Date</TD><TD noWrap align=left>07-JAN-2011</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Subject</TD><TD noWrap align=left>PRO/AH/EDR> Undiagnosed die-off, fish - USA (03): (AR), RFI</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, FISH - USA (03): (ARKANSAS), REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
************************************************** ***********************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.isid.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Date: 3 Jan 2011
Source: 40/29tv.com [edited]
<http://www.4029tv.com/r/26356470/detail.html?>



Experts Close In On What Killed Fish
------------------------------------
Monday [3 Jan 2011], officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission said an investigation into what killed nearly 100 000
fresh water drum fish has turned up the possibility of a virus or bacteria.

It was on Thursday (30 Dec 2010) when people started reporting the
dead fish lining the banks of the Arkansas River.

Game and fish officers said that during their investigation, they
discovered the dead fish covered about 17 miles of river from the
Ozark Lock and Dam downstream to River Mile 240, directly south of
Hartman, Arkansas.

The dead fish seemed to only be limited to fresh water drum fish.
Game officers said the type of disease will be determined by further testing.

The results are expected to be available in about 3 weeks.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Most bacteria will grow in 24-48 hours. Viral cultures usually take
about that amount of time, but fungal cultures may take 14 or more days.

While there are a number fresh water diseases, none of them on my
reference list are specific to drum fish only. Sadly, this article
does not provide any clues as to why the wildlife officials believe
or suspect it is a bacterial or viral disease.

An authoritative report on the results would be appreciated.. - Mod.TG]

[The interactive HealthMap/ProMED map of Arkansas showing Hartman can
be found at <http://healthmap.org/r/0lP1>. - Mod.MPP]

[see also:
Undiagnosed die-off, fish - USA: (AR), freshwater drum 20110104.0035]
....................sb/tg/ejp/mpp

...

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[Emily]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

Here's an APHIS report from 2009 on viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus. Doesn't seem to have spread to Arkansas by then.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_hea...s_surv_rpt.pdf

[Emily]

Re: Arkansas river- Several thousand dead fish, primarily Drum fish - Health Department advising not to eat any of the dead fish

Two more freshwater drum fish kills in the same region occurred on 1-28 and 2-6.

http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/16489

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has results of a study that point to a cause for these fish kills.

http://www.agfc.com/Pages/newsDetails.aspx?show=197

Gas Bubble Trauma likely cause of fish kills
Date 03/17/2011
Description

LITTLE ROCK ? According to recent tests, two large fish kills below Ozark Dam on the Arkansas River were likely caused by increases in atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen in the water after spillway gates were opened.

About 83,000 freshwater drum and 800 yellow bass died Dec. 29 after 10 spillway gates were open for 10 hours. About 500 drum died Jan. 28 shortly after seven gates were open for two hours.

Bob Limbird, an AGFC district fisheries supervisor; Frank Leone, an AGFC fisheries management biologist; Kelly Winningham, an AGFC fish pathologist, and Andy Goodwin of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff conducted experiments Feb. 15 at Dardanelle Dam and Feb. 17 at Ozark Dam and filed the report. They had the cooperation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, UAPB and Arkansas Tech University....

Rest of report at link. I was wondering about the dam upstream after reading this:

The Effects of High Vacuum on Fish
Hogan, Joe
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society [Trans. Am. Fish. Soc.]. Vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 469-474. 1941.

A set of three large siphon tubes has been installed on the lower St. Francis River in Arkansas, which pass the normal flow of the river. They operate with a negative pressure equivalent to from 18 to 26 inches of mercury. Experiments with fish held under negative pressure in aquaria for the length of time required to pass through the tubes have been conducted and some species of fish show serious injury. Those that are physostomous are more able to make the sudden change or adjustment in the swim bladder necessary when passing through the tubes, while physoclistous fish are unable to make the sudden adjustment and suffer hemorrhage in the circulatory system and many die. There is need for close cooperation between engineers and fishery administrators in designing and constructing devices that are apt to affect fish life in public waters.

Here is a more recent article that seems related:

Gas supersaturation and gas bubble trauma in fish downstream from a midwestern reservoir
Lutz, DS
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society [TRANS. AM. FISH. SOC.]. Vol. 124, no. 3, pp. 423-436. 1995.