Lake Erie Dead Fish Creating A Mystery … And A Stink

Lake Erie dead fish are piling up by the thousands along a 25-mile stretch of lake’s shore, leading environmental officials to search for exactly why the kill is happening.

The dead fish have turned up in a stretch of Lake Erie on its northern side, WIBV reported. As the Lake Erie dead fish approach the tens of thousands, environmental officials believe that a natural phenomenon called lake inversion is the reason, though they don’t know exactly what it’s happened.

Lake inversion is a condition that brings cold water to the lake’s surface, bringing with it lower oxygen levels that kill fish. They’re not sure exactly what triggered to lake inversion, but said it can be brought on by a number of factors.

“Something, whether it be a storm, or cooler temperatures at night, or strong winds, triggers a temperature change in the lake,” Ontario Ministry of the Environment spokeswoman Kate Jordan told Canadian media.

There are other theories as to what brought about the Lake Erie dead fish. It could have also been a sewage spill of some kind, environmental officials added. Several agencies are in on the process to investigate the cause of the Lake Erie dead fish, News Net 5 reported.

Though the Lake Erie dead fish are turning up on the Canadian side, a stretch of the lake that starts at Cleveland is particularly susceptible to lake inversion, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported. The danger of lake inversion peaks in between late August and mid-September, the agency reported.

Officials are racing against the clock to discover the reason for the fish die-off and get rid of the Lake Erie dead fish. Residents have already reported an overwhelming smell of dead fish emanating from the lake shore.