Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:21:18 -0400
From: Haw River Assembly
Subject: Re: dead fish at Jordan Lake
In response to the sighting of dead fish at Jordan Lake (said to be between Ebenezer Beach and Poplar Point)
In general, it is not a good idea to swim where there are many dead fish. If they died from a toxin you don’t want to also be exposed to it . If, as is most likely in this case, they died from lack of oxygen, associated with high temperatures and algae blooms, you don’t want to be swimming with bacteria and other microbes associated with rotting fish.
I have passed the information along to the State Parks folks at Jordan Lake – and also to the regional Division of Water Quality (both of whose budgets have been severely slashed by our current legislature in NC!)
Elaine Chiosso
Haw Riverkeeper
Haw River Assembly
P.O.Box 187
Bynum NC 27228
(919) 542-5790
www.hawriver.org
I recently put 2 and 2 together and realized that my son got sick with a possible viral infection the same week as the fish kill. We go to the lake (Seaforth Beach) at least once a week, and of course he is in the water the entire time.
What concerns me now is that there wasn’t some kind of post announcing unsafe swimming conditions… I was not aware of the fish kill at the time, and did not see any dead fish on the beach the days we went, BUT something should have been posted! Especially if fish had been dying for a week. What can we do about this?