Fish washing up on shore

ODNR investigating reports from along Lake Erie

Residents along Lake Erie noticed something odd the morning of July 5.

Dozens of dead and dying freshwater drum, or sheepshead, are floating along the shore in Avon Lake and Sheffield Lake.

Mark Cummings, who lives in the 5500 block of Lake Road in Sheffield Lake, said he noticed the phenomenon before heading to work.

“It was kind of strange,” said Cummings, who indicated he lived along Lake Erie for over 25 years and hadn’t seen anything similar. “(The fish) were actually alive still.”

Cummings’ next door neighbor, Dick Jozsa, said the dying fish appeared to be moving from east to west along the shoreline.

Jozsa said the fish appear to be rather large, and are flopping on their side on the top of the water. Their gills appeared to be flaring as well, as if they could not breathe.

Cummings and Jozsa both wondered if the dying fish were connected to the June 25 chemical spill at the

Ford Ohio Assembly Plant, 650 Miller Road in Avon.

About 5,000 gallons of rust-proofing material spilled into a storm sewer before a valve failure caused an unknown amount to enter Lake Erie. The spill was contained the next day.

According to a news release on the spill from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the gray, shiny material that was released in the spill was contained to a small portion

of the lake and was not believed to pose any danger to fish or wildlife.

Travis Hartman, Lake Erie Program administrator for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, said the division sent a game warden to the area who confirmed the reports of dead drum in the two cities.

Hartman said it’s still early in the investigation, but he does not believe the dead and dying fish spotted

July 5 is connected to the June 25 spill.

“I’m guessing if it’d been related to that we probably would have seen multiple species,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine something from that specifically injuring one species and not others.”

In Hartman’s experience, he said the carcasses could be the result of one of three things: viral hemorrhagic septicemia, an isolated spawning stress incident or something environmental.

According to Hartman, viral hemorrhagic septicemia caused a large die-off of fish in 2006, though he said Lake Erie may be too warm for the disease to take hold, as die-offs caused by the disease tend to occur around late spring to early summer.

He said the division saw elevated levels of the disease in the spring in other species of fish, but did not see any kills.

“I was honestly surprised we didn’t see a larger drum kill like we did back in 2006,” Hartman said. “It seems like, for whatever reason, drum are more susceptible to it than other species.”

He said in instances where the disease causes a large die-off, it usually lasts for a few weeks and then abruptly ends.

“Back in 2006, I remember it being, maybe two weeks, of drum dying and washing up on shorelines and then we didn’t see any evidence of it the rest of the year,” Hartman said.

If the recent spat of dying fish is the result of the disease, there is no danger of a human contracting it, he said.

“It’s not something that you can contract through eating fish,” Hartman said. “The disease is specific to fish. Even if you eat a fish that has VHS disease, it can’t be transported to humans.”

Diana Huska, who said she has lived on Park Drive in Sheffield Lake since 1979, said she is skeptical of the reasons the fish are dying.

“This is not viral,” Huska said. “I don’t believe this.”

She said birds have been eating on the dead fish near her home.

It’s concerning Huska said and it could be a couple of weeks before residents really learn what is going on in Lake Erie.

KEITH REYNOLDS — THE MORNING JOURNAL A similar scene to this lined the shoreline in Avon Lake and Sheffield Lake July 5, as dozens of fresh water drum were suddenly stricken and later died. According to Division of Wildlife officials, it may be due to viral hemorrhagic septicemia.