Dead fish blanket Dickinson Bayou

DICKINSON — Part of Dickinson Bayou was covered with dead fish after a massive kill.

The fish are Gulf menhaden, commonly known as shad, and there were tens of thousands floating in the bayou.

Gulls were having a field day, but could not keep pace.

Gerhard Meinecke, who lives on the bayou, said he saw the fish early Saturday morning.

“I saw them at first daylight, about 6 a.m.,” he said. “I went out into the yard and saw them.”

Meinecke lives on Benson Road, about a quarter mile west of Interstate 45.

“As far as I could see to both sides, it was covered with dead fish,” he said.

This is the third time in the 21 years he has lived in his house that he has seen a large-scale fish kill, Meinecke said.

“It always happens after we have a long period without rain,” he said.

That’s not a coincidence, said Winston Denton, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The fish die because of a lack of oxygen. When there is an abundance of algae, as there is now, the plants produce oxygen during sunny periods. When Saturday’s rains and clouds came, the algae shut down and the shad quickly became oxygen-starved.

Denton said the fish kill was not unexpected because Dickinson Bayou has naturally low levels of dissolved oxygen and the months-long heat wave also made things worse.

“Warmer water holds less oxygen than cooler water,” he said.

Denton said this is not the first instance of a massive fish kill. There have been several around Galveston Bay since May and one is going on in Clear Lake right now.

“It started (last week), and on Friday, there were millions of dead fish in the water,” he said.

The Gulf menhaden is a species that is especially susceptible to massive kills, Denton said.

“Most fish react to lower oxygen levels and swim away,” he said. “Menhaden don’t react to low levels. They also move in much larger groups than other fish.”

The fish kills could have a two-pronged impact, Denton said.

“It is an important commercial fish and an important ecological fish,” he said. “When they are adults they are in the Gulf and are important to commercial fishermen. When they are young, they are food for other fish.”