REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. - The hot weather may have played a role in the death of hundreds of fish Wednesday in Rehoboth Beach's Silver Lake.
Fisherman Steve vonBrandt noticed dead fish along the shore and floating in the water as the sun rose. He suspects the hot weather, combined with little rain, may have depleted the dissolved oxygen in the lake.
"The hotter it gets and the less rain we have, the worse that dissolved oxygen content becomes," said vonBrandt, who personally estimates the number of dead fish to be in the thousands.
vonBrandt, who visits the lake to teach fishing lessons as part of his job, said the water temperature was nearing 90 degrees for several days in the row; the fisherman said he tested the pH levels and they appeared to be around normal.
While the lake has experienced fish kills before, vonBrandt said this could be one of the worst he has seen.
"It has happened here in the past and we've had fish kills," vonBrandt said. "It has recovered but sometimes it's never recovered back to the way it was previously."
The species of dead fish included bass, shad and white perch. Some of the bass appeared to weigh up to eight pounds. Gulls quickly arrived to eat the smaller fish floating at the top.
"They're everywhere," said Sally Brown, who has a summer house along the lake.
The city notified state officials of the issue, said city manager Greg Ferrese. The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control could not be reached. Most government agencies were closed Wednesday because of the holiday. A DNREC scientist visited the lake early in the morning for testing, vonBrandt said.
Silver Lake is considered one of the closest fresh water lakes to the Atlantic Ocean along the U.S. east coast.
Neighbors were preparing for a strong odor from the dead fish.
"That's not pleasant for visitors," said Brown. "We have tenants coming in. They don't want to deal with things like that."
Given the amount of time it takes for certain fish to mature, vonBrandt believes the fish supply could take years, even up to a decade, to recover.
The dead fish were found along the shore and floating in Silver Lake in Rehoboth Beach, Del. (Photo: WBOC)
