Environmental authorities are investigating yet another fish-kill on the Shenandoah River, the latest in a puzzling trend of die-offs plaguing a key Virginia waterway upstream of the Potomac.
Dead northern hogsuckers were discovered along the Potomac River tributary in Clarke County earlier this week, said Jeff Kelble, Shenandoah Riverkeeper and a member of the Shenandoah River Fish Kill Task Force.
Though officials have not compiled firm numbers on how many of the fish died, Kelble said it’s likely in the thousands. Also uncertain is when the kill began, or what caused it.
“It was definitely going on through the weekend” and probably during last week, said Kelble, whojoined Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries officials in investigating the issue after it was discovered Monday.
The Shenandoah River is mired in environmental problems, some of which have appeared on the Potomac. On both rivers, bass are showing signs of “intersex,” where male fish were found with eggs in their testes.
A study by a Maine-based research group found alarmingly high levels of mercury in songbirds around the Shenandoah.
And numerous pollutants, including mercury, have rendered many fish in the waterway unsafe to eat in large quantities.
On top of those issues are the repeated fish-kills that have devastated smallmouth bass and sunfish populations since 2004.
The bodies of the fish were found with distinctive lesions, which were not found in the most recent kill, Kelble said. In October, Virginia governor Tim Kaine pledged $150,000 toward studying the kills.
