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Mystic River carp die-off probably some natural thing, advocacy group says

The Mystic River Watershed Association ponders all the dead fish floating to the top of the Mystic of late, concludes it's probably a natural phenomenon, unrelated to either possible oil spills or low amounts of oxygen in the water:

We do not believe that there is evidence that this die-off is the result of pollution. In the past two weeks, two slicks were reported to DEP at specific locations in the lower stretches of the river, something MyRWA has also been tracking. But the fish die-off phenomenon extends all up and down the river and affects only large carp. If a pollutant were the cause, the effect would not be limited to one species and one size of fish. So this event calls for another kind of explanation.

We also do not believe that the cause is low dissolved oxygen levels (another common cause of fish kills). There is no evidence of dramatically low dissolved oxygen levels along the length of the Mystic, and carp are, in any case, among the most resilient fish in the face of low oxygen.

So the evidence suggests that is a rare, but essentially “natural” die-off, affecting only one species. It’s a dramatic event. These are large fish. But we do not believe that it is the result of water quality issues in the Mystic, and we do not think that wildlife in general or people are at risk from whatever is causing it.

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Comments

leaves the fish weakened, and there is no IHOP close by for morning after breakfast.

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..something about fish and bicycles and MarkK, but I'm too tired to come up with one.

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I knew there was one too and was checking google to make sure there wasn't an ihop in Malden.

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IMAGE(https://cbsboston.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/ihop.jpg?w=620&h=349&crop=1)
                        ( Squire Road IHOP - Just over the line from Malden )

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Was wondering why it didn't show up in google. I figured it dropped out of the franchise.

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Carpe Diem! (or "Spawn til ya drop!)

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I saw a few floaters in the Charles River Locks the other day to walking back from North Point to North Station so it prob is some random die off

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People go out each month to do water quality monitoring, including dissolved oxygen. This has been going on for close to 15 years in some locations.

Data can be found at http://www.mysticriver.org

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A few weeks back, I was over at Great Meadows Concord Station and noticed an awful lot of dead carp for the time of the year. A ranger said that that was probably due to low oxygen levels there, because it was a particularly tough end of Winter and the ice was pretty thick. Obviously, that's Concord and not the Mystic (where the low oxygen conditions have been ruled out as a factor). If there's any good to what's going on, it's that these fish are an invasive species and a problem.

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MORE LIKE CRAP, AM I RIGHT BOYS?

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