Hopefully this "experiment " is for the better (for the future...) and, not for the killing off of the grass. It sucks to see all those dead fish, but if it saves thousands in the future it's worth it. Still hard to see... that one on the log in the second pic looks like a 6-7 pounder.

They need to quit their testing since they are killing fish.

Something bad was going on there. SAD to see this scene.

if ya blow the pics up it looks like most of the fish are catfish and sandbass, some crappie as well. I do see 3 nice slots though.

not good either way.

So,if the chemical used to test the fish kills them.....would it kill whatever eats that contaminated fish?

You would think so

Not Necessarily. We have no idea what "chemical" they were testing and how this chemical will kill fish.

For example, a high enough dosage of surfactants can kill fish by adsorbing to their kills and preventing oxygen exchange. This would have zero effect on any other organism that consumed these fish.



It is also possible that the testing was not done on the lake and was done to determine lethal dosages. These fish may have been doomed from the beginning. They likely tested at a broad range of dosages until they reached a dosage at which 50% of the population was killed within a specified time period (LD50). Now if they use the same chemical in a lake, they will make sure dosages are a fraction of the LD50.

Of course this is all as much speculation as anyone else at the moment, but dead fish doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom. I doubt very seriously chemical "testing" was done on the lake itself and this just happened to be the disposal site. Guess they could have angered other people and thrown them in someone's dumpster.

Now I done looked at them fish up close and read the entire numbknutsbook, um, facebook bit (reminds why I stay away from there and come here instead...) and have an educated comment or three...

First, I'm both a fan and a harsh critic of TP&WD, but leaving a pile of fish anywhere to just rot or be "eaten by buzzards," is very unlike anybody I ever worked with in the org.

Second, there are several species of fishes in that picture. If I were to try and categorize the sample...

Species Relative Abundance

Gizzard Shad Dominant
Channel Catfish Abundant
Largemouth Bass Common
Bluegill Sunfish Uncommon
Freshwater Drum Rare
Buffalo or Carp Rare

I note there are no small fish in the sample and there are many unidentifiable examples. The group looks fairly fresh and not rotted. Also not spread out or disturbed by animals. The fish are not examples of samples taken from gill or trammel nets or traps as they've got no marks or bruises indicating such. Electrofishing in and of itself does not kill fish and fish sampled that way are usually returned alive. It does not appear to be a disease or pathogen as these tend to be very species specific and there are many species in the photos.

Note the fat condition of the catfish and the skinny condition of the bass.

So, something was likely wrong with the water quality, whether natural or a toxin. If from a "chemical to experiment with put in by biologists," it might be part of a group of fish taken for sampling by a method called "cove rotenone," where a natural fish poison (rotenone) is used to kill a small area and then use the dead fish to get an accurate sample of the fish from the area. Coves or necks are popular places for this. I don't think this a likely scenario.

If recently a herbicide has been applied to an area thick with aquatic grasses, and sometimes because the area is thick with grass it can go bad without any help, an oxygen depletion is possible. That can get all the fish in an area. Most aquatic herbicides, with a few notable exceptions, are not directly toxic to fish.

Perhaps an inquiry to the district biologist would yield an answer.

TPWD 2000 fish & hydrylla kill, people spraying or using a herbicide around their docks for years. Its no wonder that lake has regressed over the past 16 yrs. TPWD mgmt practices on Fork is a joke.

It wasn't a direct test for "chemicals". It was part of a nationwide monitoring program, the national fish health survey, conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. TPWD simply assist's the USFWS with it. There is no need for concern about the health of bass or any other species within Fork. Here's a link to the TPWD district Facebook page which explains a little more what they were doing. Scroll down to their second post.

https://www.facebook.com/InlandFisheriesTylerNorthDistrict/?fref=ts

The purists also blamed Waterdogs for the LMBV. In the effort to stop live bait fishing it was an opportunity that got so blown out of proportion that TPWD had "live bait" hearings from the public in Emory and Pilot Point. To your point.... it was pretty obvious the grass was poisoned at the same time as LMBV and the "live bait" put down failed.

The only entity big enough to spread a virus to three giant lakes is TPWD!

That's who I saw last Wednesday shocking up fish by the 154 public ramp. As the fish popped up one guy was netting them but I couldn't tell what species they were only that they were small. By the time I launched and parked my truck they were gone so I didn't see which way they went.

they took the fish over to the dock at Oak Ridge where the US Fish & Wildlife service did their experiments.

they killed each and every fish to see what kind of "chemicals" were residing in their livers. Like mercury and other heavy metals like you might get from coal burning generators. And they have been doing these tests all over the country.

So there is no vast conspiracy by unknown scientists that want to kill the grasses and take our fish.

And it only took five pages of comment s to get the story straight.

It's LOL just the Obama administration (LOL) EPA wanting ammunition to shut down our coal burners in favor of the unfavorable nukes but very favorable wind and solar.

Global warming doncha know.

But that little add on sentence might get us another 5 pages. LOL

Thanks for the info! We all love that lake and black helicopters are so much more fun to banter about...... . Bad call on someone's part to dump on the bank IMO why not donate or something if all that was done is test organs. I am sure the sportsman association could have helped in that area for food species......dumping on a secluded bank causes lack of trust and doubt and theories rage.