Published Wednesday, June 26, 2002
CONNEAUT LAKE (AP) -- More than 400 adult carp in Conneaut Lake have died over the last two weeks because of spawning stress and low water temperatures, state officials said.
The dead fish littering the 934-acre lake in Crawford County were killed because of normal spring spawning stress coupled with cold water, not by a recent herbicide spraying to suppress water plant growth, said Frank Parise, assistant regional manager at the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. A gill fungus or viral infection may also have played a role, he said.
Commission officials surveyed the lake Friday and were continuing tests on the dead fish Tuesday.
"We're just allowing them to decompose," Parise said. "At most, they are an inconvenience."