Fish kill in Chesapeake Bay January 2011

Sent in by Rip-Plugger, thanks.



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...n7216597.shtml

Two Million Dead Fish Appear in Chesapeake Bay

This Jan. 3, 2011 photo provided by the Maryland Department of the Environment shows dead fish, mostly spot, along with a few small croaker, at Northwest Creek on Kent Island in Stevensville, Md. State officials say an estimated two million fish have been reported dead since last week. (AP Photo)

(CBS) The estimated two million dead fish found floating in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland recently are not another sign of the apocalypse, but were instead probably killed by the cold weather, officials told The Baltimore Sun.

Water quality was also ruled out as a possible culprit for the mass die-off of mostly spot and some croaker fish, the Sun reports.

Spot fish are notorious for being vulnerable to the cold, and large winter kills of spot have been documented in Maryland at least twice before, a Maryland Department of the Environment spokeswoman told the Sun, with about 15 million dying in early 1976 and a smaller number in 1980.

The mass Chesapeake fish die-off joins a growing list of reports from around the globe of mysterious fish and bird deaths.