Cause of redfish kill in Mobile Bay may never be determined

Cause of redfish kill in Mobile Bay may never be determined

A redfish kill story first reported our own John Mullen on the OBA website late last month, made it all the way to Field & Stream magazine. Mullen reported that Orange Beach charter boat captain Blake Michaleski recorded a video of what could have been a long-line of dead redfish while heading to the Sand Island Lighthouse on March 20. “I’m sick to my stomach,” he wrote on his facebook page. “Hundreds of breeder bull reds dead along the tideline at the mouth of Mobile Bay
Alabama Marine Resources Division, the University of Southern Alabama, and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab investigated and agreed fish kills are an annual occurrence, but it’s unusual for it to happen so early in the year and for the fish to be discovered in the water rather than washed ashore. Low oxygen levels or high toxic bacteria levels caused by heavy rains are possibly the cause. Many fish kills are the result of low dissolved oxygen in the water, but large redfish are usually able to avoid it.
Big kills of bull redfish were also reported in late March by anglers from Fort Morgan, Weeks Bay, Point Clear, Dauphin Island and Grand Bay in Alabama, as well as Mississippi beaches.
Dauphin Island Sea Lab scientists have ruled out commercial fishing and fish entanglement, and it is possible the bulls died in the Gulf of Mexico and drifted into the bay with tidal flows and tide lines. The fish were too decomposed to provide valid samples for scientific testing.