Fish Kill at Wilde Lake

The Columbia Association has been reporting on a fish kill at Wilde Lake in Columbia, MD. Here's the details from the latest e-mail:

As all of you are aware, there has been a fish kill at Wilde Lake this week. From resident's reports - the number of dead fish range from 200 to 1000. From a field visit the number of dead fish is closer to a number in the middle, around 400-500.

Two common questions that have been asked are about CA's use of pesticides and sewer spills. The Columbia Association has not applied fertilizer or pesticides on the Open Space in the Wilde Lake subwatershed this year. After verifying with Howard County Government, there are also no reported sewage spills in the villages of Wilde Lake or Harper's Choice (portions of both villages drain to the lake).

As noted yesterday, Sean Harbaugh of CA contacted the MDE Fish Kill response team and met with a representative at Wilde Lake yesterday. The water samples, that were taken at the lake, did not indicate that there was an acute water quality problem. A fish sample was taken back to the MDE lab for analysis. The preliminary analysis indicated that the fish had both a gill fluke and a fungal infection (Saprolegnia), both are commonly found in freshwater.

The MDE Fish Kill website does a good job of explaining most causes of fish kills in the region. Directly from the MDE website - "Fish kills also result from a combination of natural and human induced stresses in the environment. Several elements may combine and act synergistically to overload stress tolerance levels and induce a fish kill. Typical stress factors may include population stress (crowding), spawning stress, reduced food abundance, excessive temperatures or sudden temperature change, parasite burdens, high or low pH, low oxygen levels caused by sewage or excessive algae (fueled by nutrient enrichment), salinity stress, chronic toxin levels (including metals and organics), and drought."

As noted above, some probable stressors to the fish population that contributed to the fish kill this week are population stress (crowding), spawning stress, and/or sudden temperature change.

CA will continue to remove the dead fish from the lake and monitor the lake for any changes.

We've just come off of 10 days of hard rains and in the last couple of days, the temperature has started to rise. I wonder what's going on. I paddled that lake a few times last year (pictures) and we took Paige there for her first fishing trip, too.