“The Fish Kill of 2009” seems to be over.  The water levels are low, but within the normal range.  The water level should rise with the higher tides that are expected.  There is the odor of rotting fish, but it’s not intense.  People are fishing, crabbing and shrimping from the crabbing dock again.

3 or 4 Thousand menhaden, a few flounder, and a few other large fish died in the fish kill.  Nick, the environmental intern, pulled 5 tubs of dead fish, almost entirely menhaden, out of the impoundment.  The staff then buried the fish.

The number of birds in the impoundment is higher and more diverse than usual.  A couple black vultures are having a grand time.  They’ve taken up a post in the live oaks between lot 128 and The Landings Building.  There are many more gulls in the impoundment than typical.  Together with the woodstorks, egrets, spoonbills, bitterns, terns, and alligators, the vultures and gulls are efficiently cleaning up the dead fish that Nick couldn’t reach.

Many thanks to the staff for all their efforts to contain and minimize the fish kill this year.