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Fla. biologist to investigate major fish kill

J.D. Gallop
Florida Today

MELBOURNE, Fla. — A Florida Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist is set to examine the possible causes of a major fish kill that left up to 15 different species of fish dead and dying in the Indian River Lagoon, authorities with the state agency reported Sunday.

Fish Kill in Sykes Creek near the Beach line.

But the news came as little comfort for residents like Courtney Yelle, 80, of Cocoa Beach. The one-time Pennsylvania resident moved to this tourist haven eight years ago, settling in a condominium along the Banana River for its scenic view. Sunday, he awoke to the sights and smells of hundreds of fish floating listlessly in the murky brown waters of the river. There in the small, lapping waves rippling near the dock, he saw decaying carcasses of flounder, puffer fish and other species.

"It's terrible. It's just the worst I've ever seen," he said of the fish kill, which began to be reported late Friday and Saturday, stretching along the lagoon from Titusville to the Pineda Causeway area. "Something has gone wrong and I don't know what it was. It's just sickening," Yelle said.

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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials confirmed calls have been made to the state agency's fish-kill hotline. An operator there also said that a fisheries biologist had been contacted by late Sunday. Florida Fish and Wildlife spokesman Greg Workman was also reached by Florida Today, but he said he was also attempting to gather more information. According to the commission's website, 100 puffer and sheepshead fish were reported dead at Watts Park on Merritt Island on Friday.

Sunday, the dead fish washed up along shorelines and floated along portions of the river. In some areas, including the Bay Club condo complex off Minutemen Causeway in Cocoa Beach, witnesses reported the unusual site seeing hundreds of fish poking their heads above water, gasping for air. There were also videos posted by area residents showing stingrays and other fish groups close to the shoreline.

By Saturday, residents described the scenes as disturbing and added that a heavy, fishy odor was permeating the area.

Bob Peltz was preparing to leave his family's home in Rockledge on Sunday when he decided to go to a riverside park, where he spotted dead crabs, flounder and other fish.

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"There were all kinds of blue crabs climbing up to get out of the water. None of us had ever seen this. I'm just so totally upset," Peltz said, adding that the river life was literally dying at his feet, unable to breathe.

Family members told him that it was more evidence of pollution and algae sucking the oxygen out of the water. He believes more should be done to help Brevard County accommodate growth and development to help protect and preserve the surrounding environment. "We need immediate action on this," he said.

Dead fish in Brevard on Friday.

The causes of the fish kill were not immediately known although the river has been experiencing what ecologists describe as a "brown tide," leaving behind clumps of rotted, dead vegetation and depleted oxygen levels.

Brown tide returned to the Indian River Lagoon in January after it first bloomed in 2012.

In November 2014, Florida Today reported catfish, flounder, mullet, sailor's choice, pinfish, red drum, sheepshead and trout were all part of hundreds of dead fish in Merritt Island canals.

Also a possible factor in this weekend's fish kill — El Niño. The weather pattern typically brings heavier than normal rains and has been cited by ecologists as triggering damaging polluted runoff into the lagoon.

Follow J.D. Gallop on Twitter: @JDGallop

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