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Officials Trying To Determine What’s Killing Common Carp At Storm Lake

July 26, 2022 Steve Schwaller

(Storm Lake)– A recent fish kill on Storm Lake has raised some concerns. Iowa Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Biologist Ben Wallace received several public contacts about dead fish washing up on the shoreline. Following an investigation on Monday, the DNR determined the fish kill is impacting common carp…

“It looks to be a disease kind of specifically impacting the common carp. So to be honest not really a huge impact on the fishery there.”

Wallace says there is no reason to worry about Storm Lake’s overall fish population, and says this kind of thing does happen…

“It’s not super common but it’s a natural occurrence to have disease outbreaks in wild fish populations. We walked a lot of the shoreline and we saw a few other dead species of fish but that’s not uncommon to see them at any give time, you know, up on the shore. It’s the thousands of dead carp that we’re seeing. All around the same size and exhibiting the same symptoms. They have a lot of necrotic tissue on their gills; had some fungus growing on their scales and stuff, so everything points to a disease impacting the common carp.”

Wallace hopes to find a lab to test sample fish to gain more information on the cause of the kill. He says the kill could last a couple more weeks before the disease runs its course.

(Courtesy Community First Broadcasting station KAYL in Storm Lake)

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