HETH, Ark. (WREG) – Some residents in eastern Arkansas are having a hard time spending any time outside after a fish kill caused by the remnants of Hurricane Francine.
David Stanley lives on Blackfish Bayou in St. Francis County. On Thursday, he and his wife began smelling the fish. He discovered thousands of dead fish blocking a channel a few hundred yards from his home.
“It’s dammed up. The fish can’t go on down like they are supposed to, and the smell. I don’t even know how to describe it. It makes you not want to think about food, for one thing,” said Stanley.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said fish die-offs usually happen during the summer in smaller bodies of water and arms of creeks.
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Randy Zellers, assistant director of communications, said cold rain from Francine caused Blackfish Lake to flip, killing the fish.
“All the cold water hits it at the same time, and it actually flips. All the oxygenated water at the surface drops to the bottom, and all the water that doesn’t have much oxygen in it flips to the top, and the fish can get caught in that,” said Zellers.