It is a fishy mystery at Rotary Marsh in Kelowna.
On Monday, several dozen fish were found dead and floating on the surface of the marsh. Some of the fish include carp and northern pikeminnows.
“It’s unbelievable,” said one man who walks by the marsh every morning as he stared out into the marsh.
One woman was visibly shocked by the sight of the dead, floating fish and covered her mouth in disbelief.
“I’m absolutely shocked. I really am. I can’t think what caused this,” said one woman.
A family visiting from out of town and strolling along the marsh were puzzled by what they were seeing.
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“It was pretty much like, omigosh,” said a young girl.
“We were surprised, is this normal?” said her mother.
Water from the marsh enters through Brandts Creek in Glenmore; the marsh then feeds out into Okanagan Lake.
City workers were at the scene early Monday morning to begin unraveling the mystery.
Todd Cashin, environmental and land use manager with the City of Kelowna, says water samples and fish samples were taken for testing.
Cashin says fish kills, which is when a mass amount of fish die, happen often in Okanagan Lake. He says the fish kills normally take place in mid-July, but he does not know if the marsh fish kill is related.
He speculates it could be a number of factors.
“We’ve had a very wet, cool spring and a rapid warming of the lake in the last week and a half. The lake has gone from 15 degrees Celsius to 24 degrees Celsius in a short amount of time. That causes fish some stress,” Cashin said.
He adds high winds could also have played a factor, but for the time being there is no “smoking gun”.
“Perhaps it’s related to bacteria with the rapid warming of the water. We’re not quite sure at this point.”
Cashin says there have been no other reports of dead fish in Kelowna marshes.
He expects osprey living near the marsh to eat the fish but adds city crews will remove them if the fish start washing ashore.
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