The Michigan DNR says fish kills can be common at this time of year.  “Winterkill is the most common type of fish kill.”  The DNR adds the kills “are localized and typically do not affect the overall health of the fish populations or fishing quality.”  The damage occurs in winter, but results don’t appear until spring.

What is “winterkill”?  The DNR says that it “begins with distressed fish gasping for air at holes in the ice and often ends with large numbers of dead fish that bloat as the water warms.  Dead fish and other aquatic life may appear fuzzy because of secondary infection by fungus, but the fungus was not the cause of death.  The fish actually suffocated from a lack of dissolved oxygen from decaying plants and other dead aquatic animals under the ice.”

Fish kills, on some scale, have also been noticed at Clark Lake in previous years.  To read the entire DNR news release, please click here.

Thanks to birds, dead fish can also land in your front yard.