Lake Merritt fish die-off could create a smelly Labor Day weekend for visitors
OAKLAND (KPIX) -- The fish die-off at Lake Merritt, affectionately known as Oakland's backyard, is creating quite a smelly situation just in time for the Labor Day weekend.
The city has a plan to try to clean up the tens of thousands of dead fish out of the lake before the upcoming holiday weekend.
Coach Connie is a rowing instructor and is on the lake almost every day. She was amazed at what she saw when heading out in the maintenance boat Tuesday -- tens of thousands of dead fish floating in the water, piled up along the shore.
"Have you ever seen anything like this? I've been here for almost 20 years and I've never seen it," said Coach Connie.
"Disgusting. I don't like the smell," said Anthony Cazaers.
Anthony and his dad were biking around the lake Tuesday and didn't expect to see or smell this massive fish die-off. There was everything from small goby fish to sturgeon, striped bass, and bat rays.
we went to the experts for answers about this red algae bloom.
"This algae exists in the water naturally, and it's at pretty low levels, but because of these weird conditions that we have right now, we've got a situation where the algae is thriving," said Sajal Choski-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeepers, a non-profit environmental group focused on the water health of the bay.
She says when the algae is growing at these rates, it uses up all the oxygen in the water – basically causing the fish to suffocate.
"I can smell it, but it's not like awful awful, but there's definitely a stench," said Lake Merritt runner Mitchell Manburg.
That's why the City of Oakland's Public Works department has a plan to start cleaning the dead fish out of the lake on Wednesday, ahead of the Labor Day long weekend.
"Lake Merritt is visited by so many people and on the holiday it increases a lot."
The dead fish aren't really an environmental or health concern, but more an odor concern. Unfortunately due to the scale of what's happening it's still going to smell.
"The amount of fish that are here, and the sheer square footage of the shore, there's no way we can get it all," said Oakland Public Works Director G. Harold Duffey.
The City of Oakland will the cleanup process on Wednesday, but experts say the die off is not over. The algae is continuing to bloom, and that will especially be true Labor Day weekend when the forecast is record high temperatures.