Fish kill estimate now at 50 million

An estimate of the number of Atlantic Menhaden dead in a Neuse River kill that began last week is now at as many as 50 million.

That count would make it the worst kill this decade and the second or third worst since an estimated 1 billion fish died in a 1991 kill that is considered a record for the region.

The estimate comes from Lower Neuse Riverkeeper Larry Baldwin, who was on the river with three boats and seven Neuse River Foundation volunteers on Wednesday, including former Riverkeeper Rick Dove. Baldwin has been on the water every day since early reports of the kill began last Friday.

Jason Green, of North Carolina Division of Water Quality’s Rapid Response Team, said he does not dispute the count. He and team member Maverick Raber were also on the water Wednesday. They looked at the situation on Monday with water quality personnel from Pamlico County but had been constrained for consistent counting by staff limitations. 

 “We are still counting fish,” Green said. “The fish reported dying in New Bern are continuing to die. It is going to be a very large number. In the area of New Bern, it is as severe as I’ve ever seen it.”

Green said, “We are taking a look at what is continuing to occur out here. We thought we were at the end and just found more. We don’t have anything conclusive yet but when we get back and calculate by our methods, we will come back with a number for the last 48 hours only. We won’t have numbers for the entire kill.”

Baldwin said, “The stench around New Bern is awful and that is true far downriver. You are going to have to see this to believe it.”

Large numbers of dead fish have been reported in the water and along the shore from the railroad trestle in New Bern on the Neuse and Trent rivers, all the way to Slocum Creek south of Carolina Pines.

Baldwin said that as many as 4 million dead fish were seen in Northwest Creek, and boats were traveling to Brices Creek to check the status there.

 “What we are seeing today is not just dead ones on the surface but those swimming under the water,” Baldwin said. “We see them as they give up.”

Dove, now retired, was the first lower Neuse riverkeeper. He lives on the Neuse River south of New Bern.

“I would like people to get out of the house and walk down to Union Point and see this for themselves,” Dove said. “This isn’t anything natural.

“We’re starting to see a few fish show up with sores now. I don’t think this fish kill is anywhere near over.”

He said foundation volunteers are “counting fish the way the Division of Water Quality taught us to do it. It’s a rough number, but it will rival the one in 1995 which has been considered the second worst.”

Green and Baldwin attribute the kill to a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water, like a large Aug. 21 fish kill.

Green said the division is “still trying to rule out any other causes. We’re trying to be as comprehensive as we can.”

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.