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Cold Waters Freeze Fish
01/07/10 - 06:32 PM
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The weather is beginning to affect Gulf marine life.

Frank Hundley of Southport says he woke Thursday morning and found hundreds, of dead mullet fish in his backyard canal.  Hundley says the canal iced over the night before.

The Fish Kill Hotline for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received 26 calls over the past few days. Department spokesman Lieutenant Stan Kirkland says the calls all relate to cold water temperatures.

Kirkland says when water gets below a certain temperature, oxygen levels decrease.  If the species don’t adapt quickly enough, they die.

Charter fisherman Captain Bob Zales says he has seen cold snaps in the panhandle kill fish before, but not in a while.  Hundley says he has seen a lot of cold seasons in the area but he has never seen so many dead fish in his back yard.

“I never realized they’d be dead this morning from the freeze, Hundley said. “I have never seen this many dead fish in here.”

Captain Zales says tides will probably wash the dead fish out of the Southport canals.  He says if the water heats up before the fish are gone however, residents in the area could experience foul smells for a few days.