BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, residents in Louisiana are dealing with cleanup and rebuilding.
Some residents are also dealing with fish kills.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates that inland there have been two million acres of fish kills.
That number could be higher as right now there are no numbers for coastal and marine kills due to Ida.
According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, inland, “we have received reports spread across an area covering almost two million acres stretching from the lower portions of the Lake Maurepas tributaries eastward to Bedico Creek in Madisonville, south through Belle Chasse and Alliance, and west through Houma and Gibson.”
The fish kill was reflected in where the eye of Hurricane Ida passed over Louisiana.
Specifically, Laplace is near the center of where LDWF is seeing fish kills.
Since Hurricane Ida left these fish kills in its wake, LDWF has been “checking water quality, primarily for dissolved oxygen, which is generally the culprit for these fish kills.”
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries “expect low dissolved oxygen levels to persist for two weeks or more post-storm in the affected areas as organic materials, including vegetative debris and fish, decompose.”
One downside to these fish kills is that both recreational and commercial fishing will be affected in the immediate future.
Fisherman may find more dead shad and invasive carp as they are more susceptible to these fish kills.
Just to put this in perspective, while 2 million seems like a lot, Hurricane Laura left a larger number of fish kills.
LDWF compared the two storms this way:
Hurricane Laura, though it hit with similar intensity, was a very different storm that moved quickly and held its strength very far inland. We experienced kills over nearly nine million acres following Laura. Ida stalled out and did not carry the extreme strength very far inland.
If you have any questions about fish kills in Louisiana, click here to find out more.
Is there is some good news about this round of fish kills, LDWF says, “while fish kills are shocking to experience and can appear devastating, they often lead to a rejuvenated system that is healthy and naturally replenished in the following years.”
