50,000 fish reported dead in Neuse

An estimated 50,000 fish were found dead along the banks of the Neuse River along Carolina Pines Thursday, likely due to low oxygen levels, according to Larry Baldwin, the lower Neuse riverkeeper.

Baldwin found menhaden, puppy drum, crabs, croaker, flounder, rays and pinfish among the dead fish. He said extreme conditions may have caused the fish and the river to "stress out."

"We predicted this at the beginning of year: the rain plus the rise in temperature," he said. "The river is stressed and looks a little dead."

Baldwin said testing the water would not yield accurate results because the fish may have died elsewhere and that the downstream direction of the wind and the current of the river could have brought the fish to Carolina Pines. Also, live fish were swimming around the dead ones, so it is unlikely the fish died there.

Baldwin said even though hurricanes can have disastrous effects, it may be what the Neuse River needs to prevent further fish kills.

"Oddly enough, the best thing that could happen would be to have a hurricane," Baldwin said. "It flushes out the system, but it would just be counterintuitive because of all the damage hurricanes bring."

The last and only other fish kill to happen in the Neuse River this year was June 26 with about 20,000 fish dead. Last year, there were no fish kills before the first part of July, according to Baldwin. Fish kills have claimed more than 1 billion fish in the Neuse River since 1991, according to riverlaw.us.

Baldwin said blaming the fish kill on dissolved oxygen would be "masking a problem" and that imbalanced nutrients in the water may be to blame.

"We've done research back 300 years," he said. "Previous to industry, there were no fish kills like this. Fish kills can be natural, but not this size. The Neuse River is still listed as nutrient impaired."