Thousands of fish dead in Nevada marina mystery

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) State wildlife officials are trying to figure out why all the fish have died in a northern Nevada marina where the stocked fishery has flourished since the man-made lake was created nearly 15 years ago.




"The 100,000 dead fish figure is something that is probably a pretty conservative guess," said Healy, who estimates they've stocked close to 1 million adult fish in the lake since they started in 1998.

"We don't know if any small fish have survived, but for all intents and purposes, the fishery doesn't exist anymore," he told The Associated Press.


Lakes like the marina consist of different layers of water temperatures, with the warmest water on top holding the highest oxygen content, Healy said. He said one theory is that the surface water may have chilled very quickly, sank toward the bottom of the lake and stirred up material on its floor, causing a "violent turnover" that could have sucked up additional oxygen.

"Everything is a theory right now," Healy said.


"Even with the biological anomaly we are seeing, it's still a very safe body of water," he said. "You just can't fish in the marina right now because there aren't any fish there, and we are trying to figure out why."



"There's no obvious indication hydrocarbon pollution could be associated with the die-off," he told the Gazette-Journal.

Healy said testing earlier this week found dissolved oxygen levels in the range of 1.1 to 1.9 parts per million. Fish do best with levels in the range of 7 to 9 parts per million and typically can't survive when it drops below 5 parts per million, he said.

The department annually stocks the marina in late February or early March 1, but he said they won't be doing that this year unless the dissolved oxygen level "makes a big recovery."