U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists in Galena have observed an unusually high number of dead whitefish and pike on lakes and rivers across the northern and western Interior. Residents of Huslia have been calling Fish and Wildlife with the same observations. Wildlife Biologist Jenny Bryant was among the first to notice the fish die-off last week, at a lake about eight miles east of Huslia. Upon reaching the lake, she noticed around a hundred dead fish floating on the water. Bryant cautioned it’s too early to pin down a cause for this fish die-off, but the combination of low water and warm weather is the leading theory right now. Communities across the Interior saw record high temperatures in early July, reaching 90 degrees at some spots. But since then, temperatures have dropped and water levels have come up.
Tim Bodony, KIYU – Galena (read by Lori Townsend, APRN)
