An investigation is underway after dead fish washed up along the banks of the Bow River in Calgary.
Alberta Environment and Parks said they received a tip about the dead fish on Tuesday.
Photos taken just west of the 10 Street Bridge show dozens of dead fish floating along the river’s surface.
Rick Moses of Trout Unlimited — which works to conserve, protect, and restore Canada’s freshwater ecosystem — said his organization hasn’t heard of any contamination in the river that could have caused the fish to die.
He said the death of this many fish is concerning. It’s not clear exactly what type of fish they are, but Moses said that if they are whitefish, that population is on the decline in the Bow River.
Moses went on to say that winter kill normally happens in lakes where oxygen levels can be much lower during the winter.
He said occasionally, there are reports of winter kill in a river when fish get stranded in a back channel as water levels drop in early winter. Sometimes these back channels can freeze to the bottom, killing the fish, he explained.
There were reports of a large number of brown trout killed about three years ago when they got stranded in a back channel near the Calgary Zoo.
A spokesperson with Alberta Environment and Parks said two biologists are now investigating the situation.
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