CLEVELAND — If you were at Edgewater Park this past weekend, you might have noticed an abundance of dead fish floating in the water. Here's why.
The type of fish found dead is known as gizzard shad, a non-native species of fish commonly found in the Great Lakes and known not to handle temperature changes very well.
According to Anne Marie Gorman, a fishery biologist supervisor at Fairport Fishery Station, the fish were introduced to Lake Erie in the late 1800s after making their way through the canal system in Northeast Ohio. In the following years, the fish became well-established.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife describes gizzard shad as "oily, smelly fish," which makes them popular as bait for bass and catfish. Smaller gizzard shad are used whole as bait, while larger ones are often times sliced up and used as cut bait.
This type of event— where a small population of fish dies en masse, is called a "fish kill" and is a fairly common occurrence in Lake Erie, according to Gorman.
"This fish kill that we are seeing does happen every year. It's a natural occurrence because of the abrupt temperature changes," Gorman said. "It's nothing that we aren't used to seeing."
A fish kill near the shores of Lake Erie is something the Northeast Ohio Sewer District said it sometimes gets calls about at the start or end of the winter season. In 2007, the NORSD wrote in a newsletter that four scientists conducted a study in the 1980s, culminating in a 1986 report which detailed shad die-offs due to temperature changes in Lake Erie's shallow depth.
"It can be unsightly, but it's important to note that in most cases the die-offs are natural," John Rhoades, NORSD, wrote in 2007.
You can read the 2007 summary on gizzard shad from the NORSD below:
This isn't the first time News 5 has reported on a fish kill. Back in 2019, a large amount of gizzard shad werefound dead in the Cuyahoga River.
You can watch more about it in the player below:
RELATED: This is why thousands of dead fish were spotted in the Cuyahoga River
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
