The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is investigating a new wave of fish kills on the Lower Susquehanna River as far south as the Falmouth area in Conoy Township.
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But, agency officials believe the mortality is caused by spawning stress that is seen to some degree every spring, and not the mysterious and alarming fish kills that have occurred in recent years in young fish later in the summer.
Anglers have reported finding adult smallmouth bass, carp, catfish and suckers floating belly-up from Sunbury to Goldsboro. Single fish and up to 30 clustered together have been reported.
"We see this every year. It's stress from spawning," Dave Miko, the PFBC's fish management division chief, said today. "But I don't want to say we're brushing it off."
The agency has set up a telephone hotline number (814-359-5110) for anglers to report dead or dying fish.
Not-yet dead fish are especially important in fish investigations, Miko said, because there are numerous pathogens that rapidly colonize in a dead fish, making it difficult to determine the cause of death.
Dead or dying fish can also be reported on-line at this Web site:
www.fish.state.pa.us/bass problems.htm .
Of more concern to fish biologists are young bass that have been dying in summer fish kills in recent years, dramatically reducing smallmouth bass numbers in the popular fishery.
In 2005, a fungus was identified as the cause. However, investigators still aren't sure what is causing the fungus. Pollution is one suspect.
A special investigation involving the PFBC, state Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Geologic Survey will be expanded in 2009.
Young, inch-long fingerling smallmouth bass were captured last week and sent to a USGS laboratory in Leetown, W. Va., for analysis. Also, pre-spawn adult smallmouths have been sent to look for clues.
Researchers want to see what kind of shape adult bass are in going into the spawn and want to see if young fish develop the fungus from something happening internally, Miko said.
Also, "We are expanding water quality monitoring sites, extending smallmouth bass young of the year disease monitoring into tributaries of the Susquehanna River, and initiating historical and pathological analysis of adult and young of the year smallmouth bass from the Susquehanna River system."
Staff writer Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029.
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