Dead fish no cause for alarm
Megan Feddersen — Staff WriterArticle Photos
FAIRMONT - The dead fish seen floating on the surface of Fairmont's lakes and washing up on shore is happening in other parts of the state, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The problem stems from a bacteria - Columnaris - that can cause large kills of sunfish, crappies, and bullheads in late spring and early summer under stressful conditions, most commonly when water temperatures - and spawning - increase rapidly.
"Columnaris outbreaks are quite common in the springtime statewide," said Bob Davis, with the DNR in Windom.
The bacteria tends to affect primarily one species at a time, usually whatever is overly abundant.
"It's almost like it's nature's way of sending them out," Davis said. "It's not harmful to humans or other creatures. It usually runs its course after a few days or a week or whatever and it doesn't seem to affect a very large portion of the population. There's going to be plenty of crappies left in the lake."
Live infected fish are edible, "but they might be kind of unsightly," Davis said. "It wouldn't hurt anyone to do it."
The DNR describes fish infected with Chondroccus Columnaris as having "eroded gill tissues, with a grey-white to yellowish slime on the skin, gills or fins."
The last time Fairmont fish were affected by the bacteria to this extent was several years ago, based on assistant city administrator Mike Humpal's recollections. Last Saturday, he spent a good part of the day picking up 35-40 dead fish, mostly crappie and some carp, on the shore of Budd Lake. City workers also have been cleaning up dead fish during the weekdays.
"It started probably the first part of last week," Humpal said. "I haven't noticed it this bad since June 20, 2002, was the last time I issued a press release about it."
Humpal has heard people trying to blame the fish kill on a local fishing tournament held recently, and there also have been false rumors that some hazardous toxic was dumped into the lakes - neither of which are true.
"It is natural occurrence and people shouldn't be alarmed," he said.
